This month marks the 35th anniversary of the origination of the Estero Bay News. It’s been through many iterations in those decades, but it’s a date near and dear to my heart.
The first issue of The Bay News was released on August 11, 1989. Known as the “Augsut Issue,” the front-page headline read, “Festival of The Bears Set for Augsut 20.” Humble beginnings, to say the least.
The prior winter (1988), I was working for the Sun Bulletin, a sister paper to what was then the Telegram Tribune, and its corporate policy was changing. They’d fired employees after decades with the company and downsized the production department to a staff of one. That holiday season, the workload was so heavy that I, a salesperson, helped the production person on my own time for the good of the publication. I was, essentially, written up for it.
That wasn’t how I wanted to do business and began talking about launching my own newspaper. The general response was, “Why don’t you?” And that, my friends, was the beginning.
That first publication, The Bay News, was a partnership with Cliff Marshall. My mom was half the staff. We often joked was she was the only one who could type and spell.
Since then, there have been a number of iterations of the paper, but it’s been near and dear to me the whole time. Even during the years I wasn’t part of it; it felt more like a child who’d grown and left than a business from which I had separated.
The Bay News became The Bay Breeze after four years, when Cliff opted for the security of regular employment.
Six years sped by, then the “Weyrich Nightmare” hit. That was a very strange time for local newspapers (details another time or from Google). It stopped publication for a while, but eventually The Bay News was reborn – thanks to a lawsuit win.
A few years later, The Bay News was joined by another publication we started in the south county, The Coast News. Theresa-Marie Wilson, known as T, joined the staff to help create that publication. A few poor partnership decisions allowed expansion but created havoc.
After dealing with those problems for some time, in the interest of keeping staff employed and the paper publishing, I stepped away from the business for about a decade.
Then, in late 2018 – the day after Christmas- T informed me that the papers had closed. 10 minutes later my wife looked at me and said, “Just do it, you know you are going to.” And just like that, the Estero Bay News took shape with T as editor.
Maybe a day later I called Neil Farrell. After he stopped laughing, he was in. January 31, 2019, was the first issue of the Estero Bay News.
In 35 years, I have seen a lot in these communities. I am humbled and grateful for what we have built. I hear daily how much people enjoy and appreciate the paper. It means the world to me when someone says that.
This is a community effort, that includes T, Neil, family and friends, and many others. The advertisers are the reason we can publish. So, please consider patronizing their businesses and if you do, maybe thank them for their part in supporting your community newspaper.
I don’t know if this little paper, and all that were part of its origins, will see another 35 years, but I look forward to what the coming years offer for our community newspaper.
