Friday — January 30, 2004

From the publisher

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Welcome to the Friday edition of the Idaho Mountain Express and Guide.

Seven days is a long time to wait to find out what’s been going on in the place you live, too long in an age in which news changes hourly, not just daily.

With the new Friday edition, local readers won’t have to wait that long anymore. They can get local news, commentary, features, sports, arts and entertainment twice a week.

News is insistent. Readers want news when it’s as fresh as possible—not after the story has spent a week or longer tumbling around in the local rumor mill. They want information when they can use it, not the week after. They want a variety of information on relevant issues and events.

How do we know? Readers told us. In recent years, they resorted to calling us or stopping reporters on the street to try to find out what was going on when there was breaking local news. Events organizers and other advertisers expressed frustration about weekly limitations on marketing promotions.

For seven years, Friday was home to the Express Weekend Edition published only during the summer and winter high seasons. When publication ceased each spring and fall in recent years, readers asked for it and were perplexed about its semi-annual disappearance.

The light features, profiles, events and entertainment stories that were part of the Weekend edition have been incorporated into the Friday edition as the Weekend page.

With Blaine County one of the fastest growing areas in Idaho, a twice-weekly newspaper makes sense. Our permanent population has surpassed 20,000 people, according to U.S. Census estimates.

News has grown along with the population. Even though the Wednesday edition of the Express is stuffed full of local news and events, stories were sometimes delayed because there was simply no room for them. Relevant regional stories, stories about other mountain towns, notices of local activities, obituaries and letters to the editor often had to wait.

The Friday edition is a work in progress. We invite readers to let us know about items they’d like the edition to carry. Suggestions or comments may be addressed to the postal address or department e-mail addresses on this page.

For now, the edition is available free at all valley news racks, but may expand to subscribers and outlying areas in the future.

The dedicated staff members of the Idaho Mountain Express and Guide have worked hard to package and bring this new edition to our readers and advertisers. With it, we reaffirm our commitment to fair news coverage and service to the valley as its changes.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.