You can get news on TV or radio, but for the full story, your best bet is still a daily newspaper. My father, a lifelong journalist, used to preach this message all the time, and it came back to me this morning as I read Jim Martin's story in the Erie Times-News on the closing of Jarecki Jewelers. The Erie jewelry store had been a downtown fixture for 145 years -- dating back to the height of the Civil War, as Martin put it.

This could have been any old report about a business that was packing it in, but Martin worked to put the story in context.The Jarecki shop, with its walnut display cases full of gleaming diamond rings and dazzling sapphire bracelets, its fancy chandeliers and other amenities, was always a first-class operation.

But, as owner Les Craig told Martin said, the nation's largest jewlery seller is now Wal-Mart, and home shopping shows on TV are right behind. That doesn't leave much for operations like Jarecki, which I always appreciated for its first-rate service, gift wrapping and home delivery options.

Such service probably seems foreign to a nation that's become used to hustling over to a mall or plaza for a deal on a discount piece of jewelry. Those of us who've lived in Erie, Pa., for a long time take pride in our reputation for being "thrifty," yet few Christmases or birthdays passed when I didn't make at least one visit to Jarecki Jewelers. I've been there a lot in recent weeks during the long selloff of inventory. All the big family events that required a gift have passed, yet I still can't resist getting one final dose of the atmosphere at Jarecki.

Martin's story captured all this -- the basic information, the history, the context of its place as a downtown retail establishment, and comments by loyal employees (some of whom have worked their for 40 years). "It was like the Tiffany's of Erie," said Caroline Reichel, who started at the store in 1963.

You can get a glimpse of this type of reporting on TV or in other sources, but you get the whole thing -- on a daily basis -- in your friendly hometown newspaper.

Makes me proud to to quoting my late dad, and, better yet, believing what he said.

-- Kevin Cuneo