Publishers Perspective: 28 Years Feels Like A Lifetime
– By Josh Warburton –
Ten years is a long time to do anything. Twenty is about five times the length of time that the average person in the U.S. stays at the same job. So, what the heck is 28 years? Answer: It’s a long time for me to do basically the exact same job as I have since I was 19 years old.
Many of you know some version of this story. I started The Independent, originally called The Revolution, way back in 1996 with a few friends in our off time. We were all young, and the other three parted ways with the paper in the first year, and the rest, as they say, is history. So, from that time on, and starting at just 20 years old, I’ve been driving this little publication basically by myself. But not without an incredible amount of help!
I figured out very early on that I could sell ads but that it was better if we had someone else overseeing all the editorial content, you know, an editor with editing skills. And we have had some fantastic editors over the years. For nearly a decade, and in our first period, it was Kevin Jones, aka The Boneman. That was a golden era for us in that we had many memorable late-night and through-the-night sessions, crafting each edition with the passion of young creatives. We had so many great contributors during that time as well, Kelly Patch and Rob Jones, and it’s also when Adam Mast first came aboard, who still writes our movie reviews to this day. We had several other very talented editors, including Cami Cox, Jen Jackson, and later, Darren Edwards and Jason Gottfried.
We also went through a short period where we attempted to compete at covering hard news, where we almost went under. Our current Editor, James McFadden, came aboard exactly four years ago…does anyone remember February 2020 and what happened shortly thereafter? What a time it’s been since then! I want to publicly thank all of them for their assistance in helping us publish curated and well-edited content all these years, especially James, for these last four, which have been especially challenging. I could not have done it without them.
I also want to thank all of our past and current contributors for lending their talents to this paper, which is now reaching approximately 350 print editions published (we published it twice a month in the first couple of years or so, and it almost killed us). And I especially want to thank the small group that makes up our current staff. That includes Josh Segovia, who has been with us as our graphic designer for at least a dozen years; we’ve lost count! Nikki Slade, our Office Manager, who worked with us in our first decade, then not for many years, and has been back for quite a few years, totaling over 11 years with us. Scott Dunford, who has been our Sales Director for 11 years, this May, and also our newest member, Tammie Thompson, who has been our Distribution Manager for the last two-plus years.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also thank all of our advertisers who have believed in what we do enough to give us their limited advertising dollars, the dozens and dozens (maybe in the hundreds) of writers and contributors, and last but not least, you, our loyal readers.
So when I say I’ve been publishing The Independent by myself, what I really mean is that I have been the sole owner all this time…but really, it’s been an amazing team effort, as without my incredible editors and staff, contributors, advertisers, and all our readers, this publication simply would not exist. Happy reading!
