Milestones come and go, are meant to be savored, considered, and to be deposited in place with a view to the future.
The Voice has achieved a milestone of 10 years in publishing a small community newspaper each week for 52 weeks. We reflect the events, thoughts, and future of our communities. We seek to continue growth.
We do not pretend to be comprehensive, however, we are involved in some of the activities and concerns, struggles and joys, of communities and counties in Kane, DuPage, Kendall, and northeast Will.
We invite our readers and community members to join in the venture and to share in the fun.
Where do we go from here? Improvement each week is our aim. Better service, more communication flow, and real responsiveness.
With this 10-year anniversary there are several items we consider to be newsworthy. We will cover our progress by revealing publicly that a new website has been completed, for the most part. There are always a few items to improve, to smooth out, and achieve better viability. Nonetheless, for the most part the website is user-friendly. Thevoice.us is to be used for information, up to date activities, by the day and by the week. We will begin accepting advertising. The website does not replace our print version of The Voice. The website will store articles and photos from past issues. The website took time to create and Jason Crane has been working diligently to achieve its success.
Another news item is that, although, we always have been open to accepting obituaries, we will begin working with legacy.com to receive obituaries and place them on both the legacy.com website and on thevoice.us website. We will take obituaries as late as 5 p.m. Tuesday to be current and relevant as possible. Some who would use our obituary services can put the services and visitations in the past tense, if the main focus is to inform the public. The prices of placing obituaries will be an attractive feature to those who use our services. The website can be utilized each day.
Change is good, however, change just to declare change can be a risk. We move forward with deliberation and thoughtfulness.
We invite community members to use the services of The Voice and to be pleased with our standing. We do not include police blotter reports, even though it is an attractive component for some readers. If is relevant we will include the information. That will be a continuing assessment. Community is the byword.
Ten years? As reporters we likely would be compelled to ask what stands out as a highlight and what do we see as important? The honest answer is individuals we meet along the way, the joy of what we do, and challenges, not obstacles, we see in front of us. Without overstating it, it is the process and not just the profits which keeps us going. Nonetheless, we will accept more legal notices and paid advertising, including advertising on the website, as a method of community participation to propel The Voice into another 10 years.