We’ve come to the end of another year here at Prime, one that has been a bit more tumultuous than those in the past. As many of you readers may – or may not – know, Chris and Dan Buendo, co-owners of The Reminder – the original parent company of Prime – chose to sell their newspaper company to the local daily, The Republican, this past June.
As of July 1, we all became employees of Advance Publications, Inc. the media company owned by the Newhouse family, which also owns The Republican.
Change is always scary in the business world – in my own career I’ve been through a business closure, a liquidation, and a purchase that caused the elimination of several of the brands I worked for – so I was a bit apprehensive about this turn of events, even when we were assured by our new boss, Fran Smith from The Republican, that nothing radical would change.
Six months in, there have been some changes for Prime, but I have to say they have all been good. Regular readers will have noticed an increase in the number of pages in the past couple of issues, giving us the opportunity to bring back columns that have been missing now and again, and to even include a new column on environmental issues in travel last month. Reminder Publishing LLC – that’s our new company name – has welcomed several new advertising sales representatives during this same time period, including Victoria Owen, who now spends a good portion of her week working with advertisers we hope you will find helpful and useful. I’m excited about the prospect of having the space to bring you more news and information in the pages of Prime as the publication continues to grow.
But no end-of-the year message would be complete without a big thank-you to all the people her at Reminder Publishing LLC who help make Prime what it is every month. I work in a great newsroom, where my managing editor, Mike Dobbs and fellow reporters Payton North, Jordan Huston and Stephanie Trombley are always willing sounding boards for story ideas, a fact for which I’m always grateful. Sales consultant Terry O’Donnell and I have been working on this product for many years, and I’ve always appreciated his willingness to work with my vision for the editorial side of the product as it has evolved over time. Graphic Design Manager Beth Thurber makes certain my feature and cover look great each month, and without graphic designer Liz O’Donoghue none of the inside pages would look as good as they do. My thanks, too, to Leigh Catchpaugh, my Prime webmaster, and Susan Bartlet, another member of Prime’s graphics design team for all their work on the product. And you wouldn’t find a copy of Prime at your favorite spot without the work of Circulation Manager Holly Mulligan. Scott Greene, Nancy Holloway, Victoria Owen, Matt Mahoney, Paula Disario, Kim Barba and Amy Allen in advertising sales also deserve thanks.
To you Prime’s readers, Happy Holidays and thanks for reading,
Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
