As the Planet turns...
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
By Richard Anderson
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-It was five years ago, almost to the day, that, while walking down Pearl Avenue, Mary Grossman drove past, rolled down her window and yelled, “I’m starting a new newspaper! Want to be the editor?”
“Sure,” I said, obviously not really thinking that much about it. This would have been, you may recall, about a day after the Jackson Hole News and the Jackson Hole Guide made the unexpected announcement that they would be merging to form the Jackson Hole News&Guide, proving once and for all that peace is possible in the Middle East. Or maybe presaging Apocalypse, depending on how you look at things, I guess. In either case, four weeks after this drive-by hiring, the first issue of
Planet Jackson Hole hit the streets and life has never quite been the same. For me at least.
We’ve made some horrific gaffes over the past 257 editions (but who’s counting?): boneheaded typos, hilarious (or not) graphic flubs, plenty of things that, well, if not exactly mistakes, still make me cringe when I think about them. But people kept reading, businesses kept buying ads, and I kept getting a paycheck every other week. So why not do it again? And again? And again?
It’s been a brutal, relentless grind that has threatened to make me a not very nice person and that also seems to have attracted every wacko on the internet to our website. But the fact that nary a week goes by when someone doesn’t say to me, “I read something in the Planet I really liked the other day” has made it bearable. That and the thought that we – Mary, Jeana, Drew and over the years an assortment of writers and photographers, most of whom have come and gone, but none of whom I will ever forget, for better or for worse – were building something new from the ground up, something that just possibly, in our most grandiose visions of our own worth, could make a difference.
Five years later, I’m gratified to report that I think we have made a difference. And looking back over those 257 past editions, I am proud of what we have built. We’ve come a long way from Cynthia Huyffer’s home office, where we put out our first issues. And we have a long way to go, too, before we achieve our full potential. But that will have to happen under the leadership of a new editor.
The Dec. 5 issue of
Planet Jackson Hole will my last as its editor. I go on to other things – specifically, director of marketing at the Center for the Arts, a tremendous opportunity to work with a tremendous organization with whom I’ve been convinced I would work some day – a job that I hope and believe will be better in many ways, but one that could never be bigger. After all, for five years I’ve done all I can with my rag-tag crew of dedicated muckrakers to keep the
Planet spinning.
In signing off, I thank you all – readers, advertisers, fans, gadflies, contributors, competitors and this great, crazy, maddening, lovely community at large – for all your help and support. Keep reading. It gets better.
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As the Planet turns... | Planet JH News Article: Editorial
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