OUR FIRST ANNIVERSARY GIVES REASON FOR REFLECTION
FLORIDA WEEKLY STAFF news@floridaweekly.com
So it's been a year, 52 issues, 62.4 million printed pages of Florida Weekly, thousands of photos, a million words in print.

And now it's time to ask what it means.

Our first anniversary has given us pause, you see. And while we're having a little fun at the one-year mark, we're also wondering what the value of newspapering as we define it really is, besides a lot of hard work.

A community voice? Well, sure. News and information that keeps you in touch with the region? Uh huh. A rag that informs and entertains at the same time, like a professor who sings? Yessiree.

Beyond that, though, we aim for a couple of things. One is a level of reportage and writing you won't find anywhere else. We take a little more time researching what we write; we keep a sense of humor about it (we don't take ourselves too seriously, in other words); and we try telling stories other media may not, or at least telling those stories in ways they won't.

There's a moral element to newspapering, a crusading quality, that attracts do-gooders, and we come equipped with a whole squad of them at Florida Weekly, including veteran, award-winning writers and talented, newly minted beginners. None of us, it's fair to say, are mere careerists interested in a job that leads us out of the region to a bigger job, which is a the customary practice at most daily newspapers. We live here, many of us for decades. We care about the place as much as you do.

Newspapering is also a business, and we have some of the savviest business people in the industry. We sell ads, and we sell them to advertisers who can be sure that their messages will meet with careful, even intense perusal by about 60,000 readers each week (That's probably a conservative estimate based on circulation and our on-line hits) - readers targeted for their own savvy, their own liquidity and wealth flexibility, and their abiding passion for Southwest Florida and all things Floridian.

You'll find plenty of news and news analysis in our pages. You'll find the best food and arts writing in Southwest Florida, along with thorough entertainment coverage. And you'll find the best profiles of people who live and work here ever written, a library of the lives that make us what we are, if you will. And much more.

Of course, there are a few things you won't find. This is state with almost 20 million people, 67 counties, and 50 daily newspapers, according to the Florida State Library and Archives. There are hundreds of weeklies, bi-weeklies and monthlies, six business newspapers, and a couple of publications defined as miscellaneous.

At Florida Weekly, you won't find wire service stories or photos. We like everything local, from reporting on the salaries of public officials to the fact that Lee County streets are the deadliest in Florida for children. We even dug deep to find the best psychics in the area and that Florida owed Lee County residents $17 million in unclaimed cash.

We do buy some features such as Suze Orman and Motley Fool that are not local. But we believe they add important value for our readers.

And we've never once mentioned Britney Spears - until now.

Eartha Kitt

You also won't find a newspaper that aims at specific ethnic markets to the exclusion of everybody else, such as the South Florida Times, "designed to 'Elevate the Dialogue' throughout the African Diaspora."

Instead, we want to elevate everybody's dialogue, since we figure everybody's in it together.

You won't find a newspaper you can't read, unless you can't read English - strong, clear, clean, knowing and occasionally even lovely English, in Florida Weekly.

And finally, you won't find on-thespot reports of murders, fatal car accidents, brutalized children, or rivers of blood running through the streets. You might find us looking at people and bureaucracies involved in the so-called hard news, but we figure you can get that news elsewhere. We think you know how hard a world it can be, without us having to remind you every day or every week.

So, what did you have at your fingertips during our first 52 weeks? (Keep in mind that if you missed it then, it's on-line now in the archive, at www. Floridaweekly.com.)

Take a look, and see: Here's a glimpse of a very good year.

And while you're glancing back, keep a note of your thoughts, and think about giving us 52 good words.

We'd love to hear from you. Here's to newspapering at Florida Weekly.

Arts & Entertainment Coverage

In the arts we've interviewed: the legendary Eartha Kitt, still sexy in her 80s; mega-selling country music star Trisha Yearwood; consumate entertainer Liza Minnelli (winner of the Tony Award, Academy Award, Emmy Award and Grammy); playwright John Patrick Shanley, whose play "Doubt" won a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize; former New York City Ballet principal dancer Jock Soto; best-selling horror writer Joe Hill (son of Tabitha and Stephen King, and a thrilling writer in his own right); and National Book Award finalist Joshua Ferris, whose debut novel is slated to become an HBO film.

We've reviewed the season's shows at half a dozen theaters, profiled exhibiting artists, interviewed conductors and concertmasters, written about the new Southwest Florida Chamber Music Society, covered art festivals, mourned the passing of the paper version of that zany tabloid the "Weekly World News," examined the graphics of the covers of new books, and attended all the Nutcrackers offered during the past Christmas season, so you didn't have to.