Technology certainly changed the way we operate here at the newspaper now from how we operated when I started here in 1984. For one thing, the number of people it takes to produce the weekly newspaper dropped as a result of speed. When I started, a composing department included folk who made up ads using…
A couple of Saturdays ago, Jack drove to Menifee to buy a trailer for hauling newspapers up from the desert. The newspapers put too much strain on his Subaru Forester’s weight capacity. The trailer relieves this. I stayed on the Hill but not, as I usually might, at home. I got dressed and drove out…
Editor’s note: Jack is taking a turn this week. First of all, what does “circulation” really mean? We order 5,600 newspapers printed every week. (We used to order only 2,800 in the paid-paper days.) The press usually overprints somewhat, somewhere between 5,600 to 5,700. All of them are “distributed,” which means they go to points…
We have a decades-long issue in the U.S. regarding search and rescues in outdoor areas. Who pays if you need to be rescued? You or the public? Take the recent guy who slipped and fell while hiking in the wilderness last week. He thought he couldn’t continue but he walked out without need for any…
In January of this year, Kathy Sacher Wilson and Ginger Dagnall resigned from the County Service Area 36 Advisory Committee. Now, Wendy Read has resigned in March. That leaves John Mertroka Jr. and Dave Hunt as the only two of the original five members sworn in in July of last year. While Wendy was attending…
Sunday, Jack and our son Zac worked at an ongoing project of trying to repair our refrigerator. Originally, something caused the refrigerator section to freeze the food. After they replaced the parts, the freezor section began to defrost. This project to determine the cause has resulted in weeks-long analyses, watching YouTube videos and moving food…
For some time now, I’ve sought out a humorous cartoon to run each week in the paper. With this community’s talent, you might think someone with that talent would come forward. The original cartoonist, of course, was EMax. Then came John Marshall with “For the Hill of It.” When he became too ill, the late,…
I wrote about the challenges of running a newspaper in a small town a couple of weeks ago. One new one came about since our change from locally subscriber requested to total market coverage. It is from local readers who don’t want a newspaper in their post office boxes for such reasons as it piles…
Last Saturday, following the untimely death of his wife Stacey, Idyllwild Fire Reserve EMT Vaughn Warriner’s co-workers — Idyllwild Career Firefighters Association, Idyllwild reserve firefighters and the Idyllwild Volunteer Fire Company — took to local streets for a Fill-the-Boot campaign. The campaign raised about $4,500 to help fund the wife and mother-of-two’s funeral expenses. How…
Running a newspaper in a small town can pose unique challenges not found in other businesses in a small town. • Diverse viewpoints. • Questions as to whether you can truly edit a newspaper. • Complaints about covering hard news vs. all happy news. • Requests to bury hard news in the back of the…
