Coastal North San Diego County high school journalism programs provide more than just a means for students to share campus news. It’s also inspiring them to look at bigger issues, analyzing how they affect their lives and their greater community while encouraging their peers to do the same.

The leading institutions of higher education in North San Diego County are all without printed student news publications as of Oct. 12, ending a nearly 80-year tradition in the region.

Community newspapers in North San Diego County were left scrambling for printing services in recent days after the region’s last facility for such work shut down and dropped their contracts, local media sources said.