Goodbye 133, Hello 134

Well, here it is.

The final issue of Volume No. 134, which marks 133 years the Saratoga Sun has been serving the Platte Valley. I’m not sure if other newspaper editors pay this close attention to the final issue of a volume but, for me, it’s kind of hard not to.

As we end one volume and begin another, I am aware of a number of anniversaries. The first, and the hardest to think about, is the loss of Keith McLendon. This second anniversary of his passing is a little bit more acute in that our final volume falls on the exact date he passed away. Over the past two years, there have been many changes within the pages of the Sun and, to some, it may be unrecognizable from the influence he had on the newspaper for nearly a decade.

That is the natural progression of life, it seems, as one can look back in our archive and see the influences of others who stood in the role of editor/publisher which are no longer evident.

The other anniversary which falls around this time is that of the first paper published without Keith. It was not the prettiest looking newspaper, nor were the two or three after that, but it still made it to press. I will, always, remember the conversation Mike Armstrong and I had in regards to the headline of the article about Keith’s passing. For what seemed like hours, we went back and forth on the headline before settling on “Saratoga Sun editor gone”.

We both felt that sufficed and it was neither unnecessarily punny nor sensational. I would find out, days later on social media, there were some who disagreed with us as they felt the headline was too cold, too unfeeling.

A part of me, at that time, believed if we didn’t put out that newspaper we wouldn’t put out the next one or the next one.

Yet another anniversary around this time is that of my being named editor/publisher of the Sun. In recent weeks, as I’ve had to do some deep dives into the archives, I’ve noticed the arrival of new staff members or their promotion to editor/publisher was announced in the pages of the Sun. Not so with me. It was a quiet change in which my name was moved from “reporter” to “editor/publisher” on page four.

I think, at the time, I believed such an announcement would have been unnecessary so soon following a tragic event.

Now, it has been nearly two years since I began leading the newspaper and I suppose I’m not doing that terrible of a job. We’re still printing on a weekly basis and, despite a few months of printing what I was told were abnormally sized newspapers, have returned to a tabloid format. I will never tell myself I’m doing a great job because I feel like there will always be room for improvement.

For the time being, however, I suppose I can find some sort of accomplishment in putting out two years of the Sun.