Opportunities

Scott Loftis

Monday, Jan. 1, marked the end of my first year as majority owner of the Carroll County News. It was a year that was occasionally challenging but always rewarding.

I always try to view challenges as opportunities, and I’m excited about the opportunities to continue to grow this newspaper and serve a community I love.

I’m grateful for everyone who has supported the paper over the past year, including a wonderful staff of folks who make it a joy to come to work each day.

When I started work at Carroll County Newspapers in 2014, the company had 22 employees, if I’m counting correctly. Today, there are six of us.

The goal is to produce the same quality publications with roughly one-quarter of the staff — to put out a paper that is still every bit as good as it was 10 years ago. As you can imagine, that gets tricky. But I’m proud of the work we’ve done.

I try to make a conscious effort to say “thank you,” because I’m sincere in my gratitude for our staff. Mary Kay Abbott, Julia Borkowski, Rick Harvey, Melody Strodtman and Rhonda Worrall are the people who make it possible for us to continue our mission of serving Carroll County. Without them, this newspaper would fail.

I also try to greet customers who come into the office and thank them for their support, as well. With early deadlines and a bit of a slow news cycle, the holidays present challenges of their own for a weekly newspaper and I wasn’t in the greatest mood. That changed a bit on Thursday, Dec. 28, when I had the privilege of meeting the DeSouzas, subscribers from Holiday Island. The De-Souzas came in to renew their subscription and I came out of my office to greet them and say thanks. We had a wonderful conversation about their love for newspapers and their appreciation of this one.

One thing Mr. DeSouza said that stuck with me, though, was that he was surprised how many of his neighbors don’t even know there IS a Carroll County News.

That surprised me too, on one level. But on another level, I know that is a real challenge that we face. We’ve worked very hard to be active and relevant in the community we serve. But we can do better, and we’ll continue to work toward that goal. We need people to know we are here.

We need more subscribers. That’s a challenge, but as I alluded to earlier, it’s also an opportunity.

Thank you all for reading and supporting the newspaper. I’d like to ask you all to tell your friends and neighbors that there is a newspaper devoted to coverage of Carroll County. If you’re a business owner, I’d like to ask you to support our coverage with advertising.

This newspaper is not perfect. If we had 22 people, I firmly believe I could keep them all busy. There’s that much going on in our county.

Still, there is no doubt that we cover news and events and happenings that don’t get covered anywhere else. If not for this newspaper, those things wouldn’t get covered at all.

I ask you all to think about that and maybe ask others to consider it as well.

Thanks to each and every one of you. Happy New Year to all of you!