It's natural at this time of the year to both reflect and to look ahead.

For us here at the Packet we look back on a successful year, as more people than ever before are reading what we write.

That growth has come on our digital platform, thepacket.co.uk

At the close of 2019, more than five million pages had been read on our website – around two million more than in 2018.

We continue to have a loyal audience in print too and we thank those who believe that our journalism is worth paying money for each week.

In 2020 we as a news outlet and, indeed, an industry, continue to fight on various fronts.

Aside from battling to secure the advertising revenue needed to survive, one that regularly rears its rather ugly head is the concept of 'fake news'. This is a term that gets thrown around all too frequently, usually to express dismay at a story that one simply doesn't agree with.

The actual definition is the deliberate spread of disinformation or hoaxes via the media. A few weeks ago the editor of a Yorkshire newspaper had to do battle with the 'fake news' claims and it's a great example of why trusted local news is more important than ever as we head into a new decade.

The story in question was about a young boy who had to sleep on a hospital floor because there were no beds.

Social media went into meltdown, slamming the newspaper, saying it simply couldn't be true.

The newspaper explained how it had done the basic journalism of verifying the story with the hospital before publication, while those on social media could hide behind a moniker and publish spurious claims without a single check.

We had our own example recently, where one of our reporters picked up on a story via social media. That's often the way these days – but social media is merely another source and we will always then verify any information before publishing a story. This particular one involved cameras appearing in Helston. One person gave an apparent explanation on the original social media post, which resulted in another person saying "social media wins again, who needs local newspapers?"

But what had been written wasn't right, we discovered when we asked the council about it, and we then went on to publish our story, with the correct explanation.

And that's the difference – you can't believe everything you read on social media, but when it's published under the banner of the Packet, you can be assured that it has been verified before being published.

Thank you for your support and I wish you a happy New Year.

The editor's regular column can be read every week in the Packet, on sale each Wednesday for 85p.