The staff at the Humboldt (SK) Journal know about anniversaries. Not only was 2005 the provinceÔÇÖs centennial, it was also the centennial of the town. And, to top it off, it was the centennial of the paper itself.
These were three occasions that deserved to be marked. As a celebration, the Journal ran historical stories throughout the year, profiling local institutions, schools, and events. The reader response was very positive.
In one regard, the Journal is quite lucky since most of their archives are intactÔÇöonly missing are some copies from the war years.
ÔÇ£We have all the original papers here in the building,ÔÇØ said editor Keri Dalman.
ÔÇ£We started working on the anniversary last fall when we started our hundredth year. We did research stories each edition. We did three stories on the fires of Humboldt, for example, and we went back to our old edition.ÔÇØ
This was very important since for many of the stories, Humboldt Journal was the primary source of information.
The JournalÔÇÖs centennial edition was a combined effort from staff. Dalman worked closely with the composition people, especially room supervisor Melissa Tuplin, to create a product that was eye-catching and meaningful. It combines the first edition of the paper with a recent edition from the summer. It also had plenty of photos.
ÔÇ£Readers loved the story of the Journal on the front page and the stories that we took from each decade.ÔÇØ
Centennial editions are about more than gathering content: successful editions also have an advertising component. At the Journal, salesperson Lenore Froehlich spent close to a month selling ads.
ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs funny: you realize the impact that the paper has had on the community, and how important it is. It brings it home that you are carrying on a legacy that was started a hundred years ago,ÔÇØ said Dahlman.
ÔÇ£We knew that our hundred years was very important, and we started taking about what we were going to do a year and a half ahead of time. The whole process was the team here at the Journal coming together. Everyone added their ideas, and we came up with something that we are pretty proud of.ÔÇØ noted Dahlman.
Working on the special edition has renewed the paperÔÇÖs focus for local news. ÔÇ£Always with a local twist and something [readers] canÔÇÖt get anywhere else,ÔÇØ said Dahlman.