Thanks...

No newspaper should ever take its readers for granted, and The WIRE doesn’t. A lot of people set out, every two weeks, to bring Roosevelt Islanders a newspaper of which they can be proud.

In some ways, though, a newspaper wants to be taken for granted. If you see the effort that goes into it rather than the content, we haven’t done our job. If putting it together and getting it into your hands can appear as effortless as Fred Astaire doing a soft-shoe even while bringing you content you may need or find interesting and valuable, then we’ve succeeded.

Even so, this is a good time of year to acknowledge the hard work of so many – all of whom must remain unnamed here because there are too many to list – who make each issue of The WIRE happen.

So here’s a salute and thanks aimed at every reporter or photographer who’s ever accepted an assignment and delivered, every proofreader who’s ever caught a tired editor’s lame goof, every volunteer who makes sure your paper is at your door on Friday, every "stuffer" who shows up Friday mornings to put papers and circulars together. And in an issue like this one – which will fund some advertising-light issues in the coming year, we also have to thank our paying advertisers, who make all the rest of it possible.

You may have noticed: The WIRE has been doing more color (both advertising and editorial content), more pages, and a slightly increased variety of news and feature coverage. Finances have improved, too. We’re not yet where we want to be in every respect, but we feel we’re headed in the right direction.

We won’t take readers for granted. But having acknowledged the hard work, we invite you to start taking The WIRE for granted when you reach the period at the end of the next sentence. That’s just the way we like it.

DL