The Gazette-Journal is a business.

We have employees, a payroll to meet, overhead and other daily operating expenses. We rely on advertising dollars, as well as income from subscriptions and single-copy sales, to keep the lights on and the press running.

Sometimes people forget that.

The most egregious offenders seem to be political candidates. This recent gubernatorial race has reminded us of that.

Each year, the candidates’ public relations handlers love to do something that gets under our skin—they proudly announce that they have purchased television advertising about their candidate, sending us lowly newspapers detailed press releases about the contents in great detail (which we, in turn, are expected to print free of charge).

“X campaign rolls out first TV ad of Virginia Governor’s race,” “X campaign adds Northern Virginia, Roanoke, Charlottesville to substantial ad buy; releases two new ads,” “X for lieutenant governor releases...