And here we are on the last issue of the year. Yes, 2018 will soon be just a memory.
There’s a sign in the Newseum in Washington, D.C. that reads, “Before it was history, it was news.”
Being in the newspaper business all my life (My dad worked for newspapers in Oklahoma, California and Arizona), that phrase is a special one for me.
Things we read in history books in school began as news stories reported by newspapers world-wide.
I have seen this town grow from the beginning. Some stories began with meeting notices printed in The Times. Then the meeting was covered by a reporter and reported in the newspaper. Public comment through the letters to the editor were accepted and opinions of those residents who could not attend the meeting were printed in the newspaper. These opinions were added to the public discussion. The additional opinions were entered into the discussion and considered by those who made the final decisions. This is one of the roles of the newspaper in the community.
The stories that made the pages of The Times in 2018 are reviewed in this and next week’s editions. Topping the story list, of course, were the elections. My son, Brent, who officially became publisher the first of the year, got a quick lesson in how nasty small town politics can get.
I told him that it was nothing new, that I used to cover the Road District meetings in the early days and they would turn into shouting matches between Board members and the general public.
In that same era, at one Sanitary District meeting, two respected community members were in a public discussion when suddenly things got ugly and the name calling began.
One board member told a citizen, “Mr. pipe (the man always smoked a pipe during the meetings), would you sit down and shut up until you know what you are talking about.”
The citizen responded, by yelling out, “Mr. beard, I would say it is you that doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
Other verbal exchanges quickly broke out in the room between residents.
Exchanges like that, pretty much came to an end with incorporation. The meetings became more structured.
Something you won’t find on the Top 10 list of stories but has had a positive impact on readership of The Times. It is the addition of a crossword puzzle.
Editor Ryan Winslett came to me in October after attending a session by nationally known newspaper consultant Kevin Slimp at the Arizona Newspapers Association annual convention.
His first piece of advice was he told everyone in the session to go back to their newspapers and add a crossword puzzle if they don’t already have one.
He gave no specific reason other than to say people like crosswords.
But we have had a lot of positive feedback to the crossword.
Joe Bill, the Dark Skies advocate locally, recently had an appointment with Bob Burns. When he arrived to the office, he said he was nearly late for his appointment. The Reason: He got caught up in doing The Times’ crossword and lost track of time.
