EDITOR’S COLUMN | Utilize The Record, it’s your newspaper

Published 6:00 am Saturday, January 17, 2015

Of all the island’s newspapers, ours has the best name. The South Whidbey Record — it has a good ring to it, for several reasons.

To start, I love that we’re The Record, rather than a times, examiner, herald or whatever. Don’t get me wrong, they’re all classic and traditional titles, but newspapers are a first draft of history, and nothing speaks to that so clearly as the word “record.” I dig that.

It’s also cool that our title has been spared the “blanderizer,” meaning it’s never been watered down to appeal to a broader audience, specifically taking the “South” out of the name. In fact, the truth is quite the opposite. We were once the Whidbey Island Record, but have since narrowed our gaze to a single community.

South Whidbey. That’s who we write about. That’s who we care about. There’s always a bit of overlap, but our primary interest is and always will be what’s happening from Clinton north to the island’s Mason-Dixon line, long delineated by the old phone booth at Classic Road and Highway 525.

We’re the South Whidbey Record, or perhaps more precisely South Whidbey’s record. This may be a private business, but it’s the community’s paper, and the purpose of my column today is to remind readers of that often overlooked truth.

We’re here for you. Our goal is write about what you need and want to read, including everything from the doings of government to what you, your kids and your neighbors are up to.

To that end, we have a few dedicated pages in every issue that people can and should take advantage of, beginning with the People Page on page 2. This is a place for small and large accomplishments alike. Catch a big fish over the weekend? Have a baby, get married or celebrate an anniversary? Tell us about it because your friends and family want to know. And don’t forget to send a picture too.

How about an opinion? Well, we have a space for that as well and it runs on page 6 of every edition. Good, bad, political, whatever; I may not agree with you, and if you ask I might just say you’re nuts, but I’ll publish your two cents all the same. The Record’s policy is to run 99.9 percent of all letters, the only exceptions being wild and unfounded claims, stuff like your neighbor is an axe murderer.

Finally, our Calendar Page is free floating, but runs in every paper. It aims to highlight free and public events, and anyone can submit. For all the cool stuff happening on South Whidbey, we get far too few submissions so send them in.

All three items are best submitted via our website, cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/southwhidbeyrecord, but they can also be emailed to me directly at editor@southwhidbeyrecord.com.

Don’t forget, South Whidbey, The Record is your paper. Use it.