It's distribution, which exceeds 37,000 copies, encompasses all of Marion, Harvey and McPherson counties, plus parts of nine contiguous counties. With this issue we have added the communities of Sedgwick, Halstead, Burrton, Windom, Marquette and Lindsborg.

Our three counties have a lot in common and interact in many ways. It makes sense to saturate every residential address 12 times a year with information and advertising that will benefit all of the residents living in the tri-county area.

We're confident you'll find goods and services in these pages that you need and can be obtained close to home. When our individual communities prosper, we all benefit. Our small businesses are the lifeblood of our communities and this publication is designed to provide an affordable option to promote themselves to a wide audience of potential customers. Without our small businesses, our landscape would not be an inviting place to inhabit.

The Buyer's Edge is different than other mass-distributed publications in the area. It is mailed to nearly 100 percent of the distribution area, the others are not. And our ad rates are a fraction of what one would spend trying to reach the same market with the dailies and weeklies in the same territory. Plus, the coverage cannot be matched.

We hope you like our new look and find the Buyer's Edge useful. If we can be of service please let us know.

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If you were in town Saturday you would have seen a flurry of activity as Stuart and Lea Isaac moved the carpet inventory they purchased from the Hillsboro Carpet Center to their new carpet business on North Main.

We are excited about the new energy they will bring to Hillsboro and the area. Supreme Floor Co. will be a nice complement to their existing business, Clean Supreme.

If you haven't noticed there seems to be a common thread running in the names of their ventures. I also heard that the unofficial name for their dairy was Cream Supreme.

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In the it's-too-bad-category....

Howard Stern, the shock jock, is upset that only 4 million fans are willing to purchase his once-free radio show. He thinks it should be 20 million.

Looks like the market takes care of things quite well. There appears to be a limit as to how much monthly expense the public can stand for filth.

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In the good-news category, it's special that K-State is the Women's National Invitational Tournament basketball champions. All games were played in Manhattan.

The formula for where the games are played is well thought out. The winning team with the largest crowd gets to host the next game. It's a tribute to K-State and its fans to host every game the Wildcats played.