WHAT IT MEANS TO CELEBRATE 88 YEARS IN PRINT DURING THESE TOUGH TIMES
On September 2nd, The Waynedale News celebrated its 88th year in print! Usually, we don’t make much of the historic newspaper’s birthday, but given the current circumstances of the shut down and economic downturn, this has to be its most trying birthday yet. These days, it’s already tough enough to compete with digital publications and social media, but coronavirus was a hard blow that almost shut us down for good!
Despite the struggle, we are continuing with the support of advertisers, sponsors and the many donors who have stepped up over the past 6 months to help us continue the time honored tradition of publishing and distributing the community newspaper. This experience has not only been challenging financially, but also logistically, as this is the first year that we’ve had to skip the printing of an issue in my 11 years as publisher and from my knowledge of the publication’s history, ever.
This tough year has helped all of us who contribute to the newspaper, as a staff member or as a volunteer, to remember the value of community news and the importance of reporting on and historical record keeping of the great things going on in our area for generations to come. That is, in addition to the benefit there is to having a resource like The Waynedale News to be able to cost-effectively hold and advertise events that will help our community, like the most recent SHOP Waynedale initiative to help other struggling businesses. Since the newspaper is free, all 35,000 readers, regardless of their economic status, have the ability to read, enjoy, laugh and learn with us. But also, to use the newspaper’s informative articles to help them learn about resources available to them if they are in need of help.
With every donation sent in the mail, every letter of encouragement and everyone who reached out to lend a helping hand, each day we are encouraged to continue on as long as we can. We believe that a newspaper is not just a piece of paper with writing on it; it’s the voice of the community. We feel that The Waynedale News has a voice that carries the positive message of all the wonderful things going on here by highlighting people of all colors, creed, religion and origin not by their wrongdoings, but by their positive actions.
I honestly cannot come up with the words to describe how I feel other than I wish to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to all of our staff, volunteers, readers, advertisers and supporters for another year of keeping our historic community newspaper going!
Join us in celebrating 88 years by helping us get to our 89th birthday! We accept donations sent to our office at 2505 Lower Huntington Road Fort Wayne, IN 46809 or online by going to gofundme.com/f/support-the-waynedale-news. Or for less than a cup of coffee, just $5 a month, you can subscribe to our website at www.waynedalenews.com.
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