The Final Edition: Reflecting on 17 Years of The Examiner
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
Toiling long hours in local journalism it’s always far better for a media outlet to report the news than to become the news. That is without question.
Unfortunately, this week, The Examiner becomes the news with the announcement that the January 28-February 3 print edition will be our last.
For a little more than 17 years, it has been an honor and a privilege for us to be part of your lives, a small piece of your world reporting on the triumphs and tragedies, the good deeds and misdeeds, along with the mundane and the exciting that make up what life – real life and real people, not some virtual existence – is in any community.
There have been so many rewarding moments for me since publisher and newspaper colleague Adam Stone called me in the summer of 2007, with a seemingly preposterous plan to start a weekly publication initially covering Pleasantville and Mount Kisco.
In retrospect, the most gratifying assignments weren’t the obviously large stories that the public could get elsewhere, but providing week-to-week information to our readers about their communities that affect their lives, and providing a space for regular people and students and business owners to be featured about the wonderful things they are doing.
Looking back during The Examiner’s formative years, we may have been a victim of our success. Within a couple of years of the 2007 launch, we were asked to fill in gaps in news coverage in neighboring communities, then branching out into Putnam County in 2009, Yorktown and several northern Westchester municipalities the following year and finally White Plains in 2011.
For me, I initially went into The Examiner thinking this might be a part-time venture, covering a couple of communities as a side hustle while working a day job somewhere else. That plan fizzled fairly quickly, with the public wanting to know all that is going on in their communities. When the financial crisis hit in 2008 and 2009, I suddenly had the time and energy to try and make The Examiner the best it could be and do whatever I could to keep it afloat.
For a while, after the Great Recession eased, it seemed we were on pretty solid footing. But the reality of local journalism anywhere, it’s just one good crisis away from being placed in peril.
I cannot thank all of my colleagues, most notably Adam and longtime friend Rick Pezzullo, for their support. I have been fortunate to not only work with them and learn from them over the years, but also be their friends – and maintain their friendships during stressful times.
A shout-out goes to everyone who made The Examiner something to look forward to each week, whether they be part-time or full-time staffers freelancers, interns, columnists, periodic contributors, the ad staff, graphic artists Annette and Dean and office manager Laura Markowski. Thank you for everything.
A newspaper cannot exist without its advertisers, who overwhelmingly pay the bills. All of them, whether regular or periodic, helped keep the dream alive.
Then there are the readers, who kept us on our toes with their story ideas, their compliments, and perhaps the greatest asset, their criticisms. Thank you all for your interest and your voice.
What has kept me going through the interminably long days and nights putting out The Examiner for 908 consecutive weeks was the love and support of my wife, Jill, daughter Sami and son Charlie.
When the paper started our children were in sixth and second grades, respectively. Now me and Jill are the parents of two college graduates and are half-nesters. It was highly infrequent when they complained about all the days and nights out, and let me indulge in this crazy existence for so long. I cannot possibly express my love and gratitude to them.
For myself, I don’t know what the immediate future holds. I’ll explore other possibilities, a bit uneasy about looking for work for the first time in decades, but also looking forward to something new, whatever that may be.
One thing is for certain: For the foreseeable future I will remain part of the Westchester community, a phone call, an e-mail, a short car ride away.
Until we meet again…
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/