Last week we released the 100th issue of our community newspaper which goes out in an edition of 112,000 copies each Thursday.
When I launched Vancouver Is Awesome's website in 2008 I knew that the title of our publication was a statement of fact, and over the past 14 years an army of people have pitched in to help prove it by writing stories about what makes it so. Many others have worked behind the scenes to keep the business side of things afloat, countless businesses have advertised with us, and a legion of readers have offered support in various ways.
The mountains, the ocean, and everything that's physically great about this place are obvious, and it didn't take long for us to realize that what makes it truly awesome is the spirit of it. It's made up of everyone who has ever lived here.
It's been nearly two years since we introduced our printed edition, and one thing that I've personally learned from the exercise is that the readers of community newspapers offer an entirely different type of feedback than those who read our website and our social media channels.
No offense to you, dear internet user, but there's something much more human about the emails and the phone calls and the actual letters that I receive from print readers versus the ones from people who are only reading our stories online, and it lifts me up when I hear from them.
When we sit down with a printed thing we're forced to slow down, flip through the pages and think about what we want to say (if anything) to the people who worked on it, instead of simply firing off a swift response after a jerk of the knee. I'm a firm believer that this exercise brings out the good in people, and if I might ask for a single favour on this occasion it's that you send us more letters.
Send them to me at 303 W 5th Ave, Vancouver BC, V5Y 1J6. Or email them to me at [email protected].
Tell me your story, or someone else's that you think we should tell. It's your stories that keep this thing going.
