ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF
Milestones come quickly and often when you haven’t traveled very far down the road. To draw attention to our 100th issue, in the context of other publishing legacies, is like beginning a cross-country trip and stopping for a rest break when you’ve only driven a block from home. But, hey, this is farther than we’ve ever “driven” before, so bear with us.
For 100 consecutive weeks we’ve managed to put out a newspaper. We’ve wanted to produce one that was important to read, in the sense of covering events and issues that reflect our life together. But we’ve also tried to publish a newspaper about the dreams, accomplishments and experiences of our readers because such stories reflect the color and feel of the fabric that makes Hillsboro and Marion County so special. You’ll need to decide how well we’ve done. We know we can do more and better.
We’ve also accomplished something that many of our colleagues in this business said couldn’t-or shouldn’t-be done: We’ve sent you this newspaper without making you pay a subscription for it. That is not so much the result of our ingenuity as it is the tremendous support we’ve received from advertisers. Compare our first issue to our 50th issue to our 100th issue, and you’ll see a dramatic increase in advertisers. And it’s not because we’ve become their favorite charity. It’s because they realize that sending a newspaper free to every home in the trade area is a worthwhile investment of their advertising dollar.
Continue to patronize their businesses as you are now. That will ensure that we can keep traveling, together with them and you, into a prosperous future.
