2/14/08

Talk of the Town:

Growth, projects, awards and surveys

by Beckye Randall

Our “little” paper is growing quickly. If this keeps up, we won’t be so little anymore!

At the first of the year, Julie Brandt became one of the partners in the business in addition to being a top-notch salesperson. She and Sue Stevenson have been burning up the streets, providing great service to all the businesses that advertise with us, but it was clear they needed help.

Lucky for us, Tracey Meissner sought us out when she left her sales position with another publisher. A highly experienced newspaper advertising salesperson, and a resident of Arlington, Tracey will take care of our customers who do business north of 172nd St. NE in Smokey Point and Arlington.

Meanwhile, after selling her long-time business, Melissa Stevenson came onboard to manage our directories and special projects and assist with display advertising sales.

As we announced on the front page, our team will be producing this year’s official Strawberry Festival program, and we have a few other special projects on the burner as well. But as always, our primary focus will continue to be on providing the highest quality hometown newspaper possible.

On another note, as I was editing and reading through all the stories in this issue, I noticed a common theme: it’s definitely awards season. There are stories about art awards, humanitarian awards, Pioneer awards, food safety awards, and of course, the Bob Awards. Whew!

We’re also offering readers a chance to chime in on their own awards choices for last year’s movies. Check out Bob Connally’s column on page 8 for information about having your say. Reader choices will be published in the next issue.

And speaking of reader input, we have enjoyed reading the reader surveys that were returned from the January 31 issue. For the most part, you’ve told us that we’re on the right track, that the columnists who appear on our pages are interesting and relevant, and that the mix of news and features is just about right. The suggestions that were submitted for interesting articles or features are under consideration. Thanks to everyone who responded to our request for input, and there’s still time to clip the survey out of the January 31 issue if you’d like.

One more issue down…many more to go!