This newspaper you hold in your hands is decidedly disposable; it’s recyclable, biodegradable, even sustainable... but by no means is it worthless. This is your sounding board, your voice. For six years — through celebrations and protest, court actions and catastrophes, reminiscences of past and portents of the future — the Daily Press has been there with you.
Today marks our sixth anniversary as a newspaper, after having launched on lucky Nov. 13, 2001. Through the years, we have striven to provide Santa Monicans — an engaged bunch if ever there was one — with a forum to express themselves on these very Opinion pages, even as we looked to inform, educate and entertain them throughout the newspaper with our news coverage.
Oftentimes, usually in efforts to pigeonhole us, readers will ask which way the Daily Press leans, but our stated goal has always been to lean in whatever direction we’re being pulled by our readers. That’s what a community newspaper should be and that’s the agreed upon goal for which our newsroom strives.
In 2001, a new millennium began, a new president was sworn in and, of course, our nation was attacked and then collectively mourned. There was the Lakers celebrating another NBA title, a resurgent China bidding to host the 2008 Olympics and an endangered guar being cloned. There was good and bad, ugly and sweet, events that binded us and tore us apart. So much of it seems so long ago. It can be hard to recall a world before such change, and a Santa Monica without a daily newspaper to inform it.
For six years, readers have opened their doors and hearts to the Daily Press. Like any relationship, there have been moments of discord, of criticism, of suggestion and of love, but this is a work in progress, and together we have weathered the growing pains.
On this day, the start of “Volume 7” on our front page masthead, we salute you, the readers, who have shaped us, molded us and crafted this daily paper that reflects a quite newsworthy city.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 13, 2007. Read the original PDF.