3-24
Twenty years ago this month, (March 2004), the first edition of The Valley Patriot rolled off the printing presses at Graphic Development in Hanover, Massachusetts. We want to thank Bob Damon, Bill Samatis, Jay, Helen, and everyone at Graphic for providing great quality newsprint and carrying us through some very hard times, especially during Tom’s long hospital stay last year, during the Columbia Gas explosions, and the two years of COVID lockdowns.
They never stopped publishing us, they never closed, and they never wavered in their support of The Valley Patriot as a small business partner.
We also want to thank Mike Gagliardi, President of the Laborer’s Union Local 175 in Methuen for providing unprecedented financial support going back to the very first edition back in March of 2004.
As most of you know, we hate unions. We skewer them on a monthly basis and see them as one of the biggest problems in this country. Yet, knowing this, Mike Gagliardi (and the Laborer’s Union Local 175) also understood early on that merging our diverse points of view was good journalism and exactly what newspapers are supposed to be about.
The fact is, the vast majority of newspapers today are a total failure because they refuse to fairly represent opposing views on issues important to our public discourse.
But, thanks to the relationship of The Valley Patriot and a local Labor Union in Methuen, we have held strong for twenty years in our mission of fairly telling the other side of the story, and letting our readers decide who’s right, and who is wrong.
We also want to thank our advertisers, especially our long-term advertisers. They have weathered boycotts, hate mail, and political retribution for supporting a newspaper that takes on powerful politicians and the sacred cows other papers are afraid to expose.
Lastly, we would like to thank everyone who has helped us along the way: our sponsors, readers, delivery drivers, writers, editors, advertisers, ad designers, our 40,000 social media followers, and those of you who just pitch in from time to time to help us keep doing what we do every day.
It has been a wild 20 years.
And we wouldn’t change a thing! ◊