From the Editor's Desk: December Subscription Special

December 13, 2018
Isaac Estes-Jones
It seems like 2018 has flown by. We’ve had a lot of changes here at the paper, now that we have an active website and social media presence. To all of you that read online, hello!
We are glad to provide some of our news stories online for free. Sharing information that matters to the public is the ideal we strive for here. But, regular readers know that there is more in the paper than gets put on the Internet. Our local columnists haven’t yet appeared in the free edition online. And our Judy Waisner, who handles classifieds, subscriptions and reception for the paper, prepares a “Stone County Years Ago” feature every week, highlighting various stories covered by the paper over our long history. Occasionally, these include brief snippets from our days as the Crane Oracle, back in the late 1800s.
Our legal notices are also not on our primary website, although the Missouri Press Association does host their own site where those notices can be found.
Every December, and only for the month of December, we offer a special price on our subscriptions. If you live in Stone, Barry, Lawrence, Christian or Taney Counties, you can get a whole years worth of the paper, mailed directly to you, for only $20. What’s more, if you buy or renew a subscription in December, you can also give a subscription to someone in those local counties for $15; an excellent Christmas present. Note, however, that those $15 gift-subscriptions must be a new subscription only.
That’s 52 weeks of local news, keeping an eye on how tax dollars are spent and highlighting the other side of local news that isn’t often shown on TV: the positive, good news stories about people helping each other and watching our kids succeed and grow. Print subscribers can also access the full PDF editions of each week's paper after requesting the website password.
Highlighting the positive stories in our communities is something I work very hard to include in every issue of the newspaper. Some weeks it is more difficult than others, but it is still so very important.
More research comes out every day, it seems, highlighting the damage that constantly focusing on the negative side of the world can cause, especially for our young people.
This does not mean I won’t ask the hard questions. A huge part of the job of the media is to give voice to the voiceless and speak truth to power.
But while covering that important negative information, I also want to highlight the good things people in our community do for each other. Most weeks, it seems, I publish a notice about some benefit or another, where communities are coming together to support someone in need.
Or, we have good news coming out of our schools. Graduations, programs, special classes.
Stone County presents unique opportunities and challenges for its citizens, with the geographic distribution of wealth and the various groups that support and enliven our citizens.
So, online readers, consider buying a subscription today. Regular readers can renew their subscription this month as well and get the benefits of these rates and get the option to buy the gift subscription, too.
If you live outside of our immediate area, you have a deal, too. Until the end of December, a subscription mailed to anywhere else in the state is $23, and one for out of state is $30.
Isaac Estes-Jones
It seems like 2018 has flown by. We’ve had a lot of changes here at the paper, now that we have an active website and social media presence. To all of you that read online, hello!
We are glad to provide some of our news stories online for free. Sharing information that matters to the public is the ideal we strive for here. But, regular readers know that there is more in the paper than gets put on the Internet. Our local columnists haven’t yet appeared in the free edition online. And our Judy Waisner, who handles classifieds, subscriptions and reception for the paper, prepares a “Stone County Years Ago” feature every week, highlighting various stories covered by the paper over our long history. Occasionally, these include brief snippets from our days as the Crane Oracle, back in the late 1800s.
Our legal notices are also not on our primary website, although the Missouri Press Association does host their own site where those notices can be found.
Every December, and only for the month of December, we offer a special price on our subscriptions. If you live in Stone, Barry, Lawrence, Christian or Taney Counties, you can get a whole years worth of the paper, mailed directly to you, for only $20. What’s more, if you buy or renew a subscription in December, you can also give a subscription to someone in those local counties for $15; an excellent Christmas present. Note, however, that those $15 gift-subscriptions must be a new subscription only.
That’s 52 weeks of local news, keeping an eye on how tax dollars are spent and highlighting the other side of local news that isn’t often shown on TV: the positive, good news stories about people helping each other and watching our kids succeed and grow. Print subscribers can also access the full PDF editions of each week's paper after requesting the website password.
Highlighting the positive stories in our communities is something I work very hard to include in every issue of the newspaper. Some weeks it is more difficult than others, but it is still so very important.
More research comes out every day, it seems, highlighting the damage that constantly focusing on the negative side of the world can cause, especially for our young people.
This does not mean I won’t ask the hard questions. A huge part of the job of the media is to give voice to the voiceless and speak truth to power.
But while covering that important negative information, I also want to highlight the good things people in our community do for each other. Most weeks, it seems, I publish a notice about some benefit or another, where communities are coming together to support someone in need.
Or, we have good news coming out of our schools. Graduations, programs, special classes.
Stone County presents unique opportunities and challenges for its citizens, with the geographic distribution of wealth and the various groups that support and enliven our citizens.
So, online readers, consider buying a subscription today. Regular readers can renew their subscription this month as well and get the benefits of these rates and get the option to buy the gift subscription, too.
If you live outside of our immediate area, you have a deal, too. Until the end of December, a subscription mailed to anywhere else in the state is $23, and one for out of state is $30.