The Village Chatter: Print media is dead! Long live community newspapers!

Glen Arbor Sun

They say that newspapers are dead. They say that readers have abandoned print media, en masse, for greener pastures on the Internet. They say that those of us still trying to make money by disseminating hard news, features or entertainment on paper may as well be arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Well, if you’ve read this far, consider yourself a rebel — or a dinosaur. What you’re holding in your hands is a community resource, a rag that this community has supported, read, cherished, criticized, used to start beach bonfires, but continuously supported — financially and through your readership and submissions — for 14 years now. And though we’re unveiling a brand new website this spring (GlenArborSun.com, with revenue-generation advertising, live videos and stories year-round), there’s no indication that the Glen Arbor Sun will suffer the same fate as the late daily papers in Detroit, Ann Arbor, Boston, Denver, and heaps of magazines around the country.

This newspaper isn’t run by a corporate media baron intent on squeezing 20-percent profit margins out of a community he’s never known. This newspaper, though not officially publicly-owned, has hundreds of shareholders — you. You understand the importance of a town, or in this case a series of small towns, having a voice, a forum not just for breaking news but for well-thought-out, analytical features, profiles on community characters both eccentric and ordinary, and friendly small-town gossip that draws you closer.

The Glen Arbor Sun’s Memorial Day issue opens the summer season like a ribbon-cutting ceremony opens a new restaurant or community garden. It’s a good tiding. The lake is still chilly when our first issue hits the streets, but the spring rains have just about ceased, leaving the forests, gardens and asparagus stalks in bloom.

In these necks of the woods, Cre Woodard’s hands are buried in dirt, shaping a beautiful garden for some lucky client; over in Empire, Frank Lerchen’s eyes are as wide as baseballs, his pupils nearly touching the brim of his Tigers’ cap, over how many folks visited town for last weekend’s Asparagus Festival; back at the Glen Arbor tennis courts, Tim Sutherland is firing up his partner during a competitive double’s match; and the Widmayers are enjoying a celebratory breakfast at Art’s after finishing the final renovations at the Glen Arbor Bed & Breakfast.

Yep, we’re ready for the tourists — whether or not there’s a bridge crossing the Glen Lake Narrows.

Pick up future issues of the Glen Arbor Sun this summer for reports on the new owners at the Narrows Marina (and how that bridge is coming along); a series of stories on the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, including which park ranger has the coolest job; a hops field in Empire, but perhaps no Dunegrass Festival; how Empire will control crowds at its busy public beach, and which team has a greater shot at winning the World Series — the Tigers, the Cubbies or Glen Arborite Bill Thompson and President Barack Obama’s beloved White Sox. Stay tuned.