It's almost four years...

since The Local printed its first issue. Back then most of the feedback I got was from naysayers asking, “Isn’t print dead?” But before long, even those people were scooping every issue up. Since then, we’ve quadrupled our circulation and expanded our reach well beyond Winter Garden. Some days it runs like a well-oiled machine. Other days, it’s more like a duct-taped lawn mower. But we still keep on chugging.

Here’s the big thing I’ve learned these last four years: when you publish a magazine rooted in community, you see every side of that community. The big and the small; the ups and the downs; the good, the bad, and occasionally the ugly.

Let’s get The Bad out of the way first. I’ve made a few folks unhappy by turning down their generous offer to let us write a free promotion for their business. I explain that we write stories, not sales pitches, and that if they want us to promote their business, we suggest their business promote us back by buying a nice, big ad. (Until we can get printers to run on fairy dust, paid advertising is how we cover the cost of printing tens of thousands of 100-page magazines to give away for “free.”)

I’ve also made a few folks unhappy by simply asking advertisers to pay their bills. (Ask me about the local business who refused to pay while they Instagrammed their lavish lifestyle!). Or the oh-so-many-times I watch businesses come and go, their owners lamenting that no one wants to “support local,” all while doing absolutely nothing to tell people they’re worth supporting. Ironically, supporting The Local might have gotten them back in business.

Then there’s The Ugly: last year, someone called me shocked —shocked!—that they didn’t win their Best of the Best category. I explain that we don’t choose who wins, the readers do. Suggesting instead of being mad at me, they should be mad at themselves for not earning it didn’t go over as well as I had hoped either. Turns out a Best of the Best contest can sometimes bring out the worst.

That said, the Good far outweighs the bad. We built this magazine as a giant sandbox, and we have invited everyone to come in and play. We’re insanely proud of our community collaborators at We Are Winter Garden; Rants, Raves and Reviews; and Horizon West Happenings. Together, we’ve built a kind of unofficial town square, a place where people can connect, be seen, and celebrate the things that make living here so much fun.

So here’s to four years of printing, wrangling, and occasionally muttering into our coffee. Here’s to the winners, the losers, the voters, the readers, and the advertisers whose financial support makes this all possible. You’ve made this wild experiment into something that actually works—most days!

Jamie Ezra Mark
Publisher
jamie@emagency.com