I feel like 2022 rolled out pretty quietly for me. I mean, I was at home with my second round of Covid, so it really was exceptionally quiet as we rolled into the night at the end of the evening on January 31.
Personally, since the pandemic started, I grew in so many new and amazing directions. I met so many fascinating people. I spent more time with my family. I stayed closer to home. I lost too many friends. I lost family. I had to break out of hard situations. In 2021, my son Matthew married his sweetheart Marti. My niece Darian married her sweetheart Guss. And a few months ago, my daughter Ali married her sweetheart Brandon. My daughter Allison moved up north and has an amazing job, doing work she loves. My son Hayden is a junior at Nederland High School. My husband and I continue to work hard to maintain our music store in Nederland. It’s been busy. And it’s been hard coming through the pandemic. Yet, I can truly say, this past year was one of the very best years of my life.
Professionally, I wrapped up dozens of projects I had been working on for years. The archive is almost completely ready to process for digitization. And, it’s now fully funded (yes fully funded). It’s happening. I also met many fascinating people through work. I brought on more staff, more interns, more locations to sell the paper, more advertisers and had an incredible year at The Mountain-Ear. What an incredible blessing to have so much support for this little local newspaper.
I want to thank everyone that has been amazing to me, my family, my staff, OUR community newspaper. It is because of each of you we are taking more steps to make sure The Mountain-Ear remains true to who we are. When we bought the paper in 2007, my goal was to make sure it remained locally owned and operated into perpetuity. We bought the paper to save it, and here we are making it real.
So, what’s next?
Friends, it’s been a long road to get to this point and I couldn’t be more excited to introduce you all to Christian Vanek, owner of Mountain Vale Media, LLC. Christian and I have been working hard to come up with a plan to work on keeping the newspaper locally owned into perpetuity. Mountain Vale Media, LLC is the new publisher of The Mountain-Ear.
The process has been in the works for several months and we have finalized some of the transition this week. Everyone on staff will still be here. Everyone you love to read, listen to or work with at the paper is still here. I’ll still be here as Managing Editor of The Mountain-Ear. We’re bringing in more staff and we’re revamping and relaunching the website (bigger and better than ever).
Here is a story we wrote about Christian a few weeks ago. Check it out at https://www.themtnear.com/ articles/decisions-and-determination-temp-fate-christian-vanek/
Now, this doesn’t mean our hometown roots are going anywhere. We’re doing this to make sure we keep the roots firmly planted in the ground.
As we transition so much over the next few months, I ask you to be patient with us. But I also ask you to speak up and tell us what works for you. What you like. What you don’t like. What you’d like more of. How we can interact with the community to benefit all and provide the quality coverage you have grown to love.
Keep an eye on our website at www.themtnear.com for regular updates. And definitely pick up the print edition each week for new and exciting news.
We released our first podcast episode of the year January 2. Moving forward listeners can expect a new poevery Monday morning.
The Mountain-Ear is YOUR community newspaper, covering the news you love, since 1977.
As always, our doors are always open in Nederland and in Black Hawk. You can reach us by email at info@themountainear.com or call us at 303-810-5409.
Happy New Year everyone! May it be the best year ever!
