Meet The Messenger

If you've ever wondered who brings The Morgan Messenger to you each week, you'll enjoy a feature that we'll be running for the next few months.

"The People Behind The Pages" will introduce you to The Messenger staff. You'll be able to see the people and learn their roles in producing a weekly newspaper. That voice on the phone or that name on the email will become a little more personal.

While many readers probably think about a paper's writers, most newspaper jobs are actually in production – selling ads, typesetting, designing ads and news pages, proofing, preparing the paper for the mail, delivering bundles to stores and, these days, keeping track of emails and The Messenger's on-line edition. We begin our series this week with Flip Henry, the first face or voice that most people see or hear when they contact us.

You've probably heard that these are tough days for newspapers, especially dailies which are suffering big circulation drops. Hard times also result in newspapers printing fewer pages, even if there seems to be more to report. But, the weeklies that serve so many communities are said to be holding their own better than the dailies. Perhaps they're closer to the people.

Last year, an industry survey showed that community newspapers, like The Messenger, continue to be read by most folks and remain their major source of local news and views.

We thank the people of the Morgan County area for their support of The Morgan Messenger through the years and hope to continue serving you in the future. After all, what would a community be without a newspaper?