The year was 2005, and the newspaper industry was beginning to have holes poked into its business model from two upstart tech companies that were just beginning to gain steam.

You might have heard of those companies. Google was just beginning to make a significant dent in local advertising revenues, and “The Facebook” was just starting to gain traction in colleges throughout the country. The idea of starting a newspaper company during these difficult times was not considered a great idea in the eyes of many onlookers.

But there was something still missing in our Austin-area communities. While news organizations were scaling down coverage and resources to cut costs, local residents had more questions than ever.

Although we were living in the information age, no one truly knew what was happening in their own backyard. So we set out to change that. We began Community Impact Newspaper in Round Rock and Pflugerville to help solve this problem. The early editions were completed from the game room of my house, and our first front-page story addressed the construction of SH 45 N, a half-completed tollway where Austin and Round Rock meet. Local residents were sparse on details about the road, so we provided valuable straight-forward project details that proved useful to our readers.

That story paid off, helping establish our reputation and commitment to quality content that doesn’t editorialize and our commitment to reaching every resident with useful news. Those initial issues were received extremely well by residents and businesses, with special appreciation paid to the business, development and local government news that, in most cases, they weren’t getting anywhere else. That gave us enough confidence to expand Community Impact Newspaper and go out to other communities to realize our worthwhile mission.

It didn’t take long before we expanded into the Cedar Park-Leander area and eventually Northwest Austin. By 2011, we had eight hyper local newspapers throughout Central Texas, spanning from Georgetown to San Marcos. We also were just starting to establish ourselves in the Dallas and Houston metros.

Now, Community Impact Newspaper is a household name in more than 35 communities that receive 22 hyper local editions. With more than 1.7 million editions distributed to homes each month, the monthly hyper local print newspaper reaches more Texans than any other publication.

Our commitment to building communities of informed citizens and thriving businesses through the collaboration of a passionate team has never been more important than it is today. We believe it’s important to keep this mission in front of our employees and make sure we filter our decisions through our values of faith, passion, quality, innovation, and integrity—what we call our Five Stones.

We regularly recognize our employees who demonstrate these values through their hard work, and we have been recognized more than 70 times by the National Newspaper Association for following through with our mission and values. Austin-area residents benefit most from this award-winning work, providing local news they can trust—information that is useful and doesn’t contain “spin.” And the readers appreciate what we provide.

Such enthusiasm for our product proves contagious in the newsroom and beyond, creating a company culture unique in the media industry. After all, we have legitimate reasons to celebrate.

While other newspapers are downsizing, cutting costs and freezing wages, Community Impact Newspaper employees get to celebrate each success, including launch parties for each new newspaper we establish—fueling our mantra that “Print Ain’t Dead.”

And we aren’t done yet.

Last year, we accomplished yet another feat that most said was impossible and many said was a bad business decision: We opened our own state-of-the-art printing press. This press has given us vertical integrations, innovation opportunities, quality control, new teammates, new business lines, and a new and profitable addition to our bottom line.

The future of our company is one full of new communities—in Texas and possibly beyond, new employees, new risks, and hopefully more “impossible” adventures so we can keep proving the skeptics wrong. This underdog mentality is in our DNA.

We welcome the adversity because we know that if we hold true to our mission, continue to attract people who believe in what we are doing, and stand firm on our values, we believe our paper will play an important role in the information age—even on newsprint.

This segment of Local Works was written by John Garrett, CEO and Founder of Community Impact Newspaper.