Scrolling through the headlines of 2017 reminds us, yet again, of how important – no, make that vital – people are to the life of this city and this newspaper.
The Record rolls into our 37th year in 2018, and there hasn’t been a year, or a week, or even a day, when the people of New Westminster have ever let us down.
Perhaps it’s because the Record was born from a belief that every town deserves a voice and New Westminster needed a paper it could call its very own.
From the beginning, residents rolled up their sleeves and helped this paper survive in tough economic times and when it was faced with competition with much deeper pockets and foreign (as in outside of New Westminster) ownership.
Today is no different.
Every day someone in this city takes a call from one of our reporters, or takes the time to discuss their media needs with one of our advertising representatives. Every day the people in this city let us into their lives – whether it be on a very personal level or on a business level.
The trust that readers and advertisers have shown us over the years has always kept us working hard.
Now, that doesn’t mean that every day someone drops a bouquet of roses on our doorstep.
No. We take our fair share of criticism – deserved or undeserved.
We also don’t believe our job is to be unquestioning boosters of our city. We are not here to represent special interests, or turn a blind eye to mistakes made with your tax dollars.
We are, we hope, like an old best friend: someone who tells you like it is.
But we are keenly aware that we can only do our jobs with the trust and readership of our community.
We are also keenly aware that that trust is earned on a story-by-story and advertisement-by-advertisement basis.
Many of our news leads are phoned in, emailed in, or told to a reporter that someone bumps into on the street. Our advertising reps know that businesses expect results, and the Record continues to deliver customers.
The media is facing a sea change nowadays. We live on the web, on Facebook, and Twitter as well as in print.
There’s no question that 2018 will bring fresh challenges for all of us – and particularly for those of us in the newspaper industry.
We thank you for reading us in 2017. We are grateful that you continue to reach out to us, and rely on us for news that matters in New Westminster.
We hope you’ll join us in ushering in 2018 with some hope, hoopla and a continuing love of New Westminster – the little city with the little hometown paper that cares about local news and the folks who share it with us.
