Southern Utah Independent – CELEBRATING 25 YEARS!

Southern Utah Independent
CELEBRATING 25 YEARS IN PRINT!

– By Josh Warburton –

As I stand at my home office desk (my old dining room table) in the living room of my home in Kanab, I’m reminded of all of the iterations that The Independent and my little company has taken over 25 years this month. Twenty-five years?! Yes, it’s been 25 years since the fateful February in 1996 when I got together with three friends and an idea. To make a newspaper for us. A publication covering lesser-known events and happenings in southern Utah. Hip things to do. Live music. Plays. Places to go. Places to hang out and meet people. And something just fun to read. At the time, I worked for The Spectrum, as did one of my other co-founders. I was 19 years old and a high school dropout (although I did have my GED).

We worked on it in our free time after hours but usually on our office computers. I didn’t own a computer at the time, and it would be several months before a friend loaned me one. The Spectrum printed The Independent initially, and for the first ten months or so when it was called “The Revolution.”

That all came crashing down when The Spectrum decided to let me go and also said they were no longer willing to print for us. That was a punch in the gut and almost our death blow. The first of many! So we regrouped, and I consulted with my wife at the time. We decided to move forward and print somewhere else (Richfield Reaper at that time), and we hoped that I’d be able to figure out how to pay the bills; and somehow, we did!

After Making it through our first year, and the rollercoaster it was, I now had full control of what was to become The Independent, with the other three founders each deciding to amicably part ways the first year. No hard feelings. It just turned out not to be something they each wanted to do, every month and ongoing.

There wasn’t any money in it at the time. I think I took my first paycheck of any kind near the two-year mark. Probably not a coincidence that I got divorced around that time too. Life was stressful. I was young and naive. I still had the long hair I’d grown as a teenager. I often got negative reactions going door to door asking for advertising. But enough businesses saw the vision or saw my passion. “Tenacious” was a word used to describe me, both then, and in the many years since. And it’s true; I don’t give up easily.

Those first few years were the hardest. A shortlist of advertisers meant there were few dollars to work with, but I persevered. By the time The Independent reached five years of publishing, I’d become an adult, more or less. I’d had a baby. I had been married and divorced. Rehired and re-fired a second time by The Spectrum. And had people tell me over and over that it would never work. And that I’d never make The Independent into a real business. But I didn’t listen to the naysayers. I knew there was an audience for it. I knew others were clamoring for entertainment news and some fun reading. And I was right. And here I am, still publishing 25 years later. Wow.

With our next issue, we will be celebrating the achievement of our 25 years in print; a special anniversary issue with contributions from many of our past writers and editors. This special expanded issue will be one for the books, and I’m looking forward to publishing it. But for now, enjoy our February edition, which completes 25 years for The Independent. And tune in next month when the story, as they say, continues… Be well my friends.

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