editor’s note

A decade from now, when readers of The Times get into their self-driving cars to be whisked automatically to work, many of them will probably lean back and pe­ruse the electronic version of this newspaper (ignoring the beautiful Touchet Val­ley Scenery, I'm afraid). It'll come right up on their dashboard screen, no doubt.

In the Pioneer Portraits section of the January 18, 2024 edition of The Times (that'll be a Thursday - I checked), those passive automobile passengers will be able to read excerpts from the paper you're hold­ing in your hand right now, under the "Ten Years Ago" heading.

Perhaps they'll be re­minded of the new man­agement scheme for the state parks in our area (will there still be state parks then?) or about the schol­arship program for Waits­burg graduating seniors. (It will undoubtedly have a long history of success by then.) They might even read about the editor's pa­thetic attempt to predict the future.

Lest you think the ulti­mate fate of all the news­papers we print each week is limited to starting fires or wrapping fish (or, hopeful­ly, being recycled), it's not true. A few copies of each issue get kept, including by us. The news lives on!

As the new owner of The Times, I'm also now the proud owner of a copy of every issue of The Times ever printed. That's nearly 137 years worth - or more than 7,000 issues. And in those 7,000+ copies of The Times, there are probably more than 100,000 indi­vidual news stories - long ones and short ones.

I've been thinking lately about where all those news stories came from. There's no doubt that The Times has had some very good re­porters over the years, but I can tell you that a lot of that news came from members of the community, just like you, who brought it to the paper's attention.

One of my main goals with The Times is to in­crease the number of short, informative news stories we bring to readers each week - we call them "briefs." They might be about events happening or local people being honored, or busi­nesses moving or expand­ing. Readers often tell me how much they appreciate being able to learn about all those little things that are going on in the community.

More importantly, some of those small news tidbits are actually stories that we can turn into bigger news features. This is how we put The Times together each week. And it can only happen with the help of our partners in the community.

If you know about something or someone you think our readers might find interesting, please let us know. Call me or Dena Wood. Or you can email us - or even text us. Our contact information is on the next page.

And who knows, 75 years from now, someone sitting in their transporta­tion pod, buzzing around the Touchet Valley on a cushion of air, may be read­ing about the story you gave us in the Pioneer Portraits section of their holographic version of The Times. Perhaps the Thurs­day, February 3, 2089 edi­tion.