BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE
PUNGO — Jane Bloodworth Rowe wrote a story in a recent paper about the Morris family, who earned the 2016 Excellence in Agriculture Award for generations of work.
And coverage of the banquet this past month appeared in print recently, also written by Jane, including remarks by former Gov. Bob McDonnell and details about others being recognized, the Virginia Beach Master Gardeners, David Salmons, and this newspaper.
For our part, I humbly thank the city’s agriculture department for their support and the committee for recognizing our work. Contributors such as Jane and Veni Fields have done much of the work that is being recognized, and I thank them and all our other contributors, too.
As well as all who trust us to share their stories.
And my wife and girls. They put up with a lot so I can do this.
I hope we will earn this. There’s much more work to do, so many stories untold, and I hope our paper will survive so we can reflect communities that either farm or simply support an important rural way of life.
This is a real labor of love, supported by advertisers, businesses who help distribute the paper with no financial benefit to them, loyal readers and the efforts of journalists and other citizens.
This weekend, I plan to travel to the Virginia Press Association awards in the Richmond area to represent our paper. I hope to speak to others who are publishing community news.
I’m looking for tips on strengthening the business part of this paper, admittedly not my strong suit, especially improving billing and ad sales.
We’ve sold our few remaining shirts and a few hats showing The Independent News logo to minimize cost of the trip, and I’m grateful to those who have helped our small paper head to Richmond.
I aim to keep doing this.
We’ll get stronger and do better work with your help.
Thanks for reading.
© 2017 Pungo Publishing Co., LLC