Editor and Publisher
John H. Walker
TARBORO —
Tarboro rejoins the world of Golden Arches this week when the local McDonald’s reopens for business after being torn down and built back up.
My diet will expand by at least one item this week as I can generally work up a craving for a fish filet from Mickey D’s even when I’m not hungry.
I remember my first filet from McDonald’s. I had driven to Atlanta to cover the Peach Bowl game between Ole Miss and Georgia Tech and was headed back to Jackson, Miss. on a Friday.
I was driving a 1969 blue MGB and was wearing a white sweater ... I remember that because a blob of tartar sauce came out of the sandwich and missed both my mount and the wrapper left a stain that was a shade different ... but enough so that you could tell I had eaten some of my food and worn some, as well!
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We received notice that our first batch of collegiate flags were shipped on Friday, so if everything goes well, we should be calling our subscribers this week to come pick theirs up.
We’re continuing the promotion through the end of the month, so you still have time to take advantage and get your favorite flag with the ONLY newspaper that gives a darn about Tarboro and Edgecombe County!
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We appreciate your support of our efforts to increase the amount of local news in your Daily Southerner.
I don’t think any newspaper ever has as many staff members as they would like and we’re no different, so we have to rely on you to help us gather the news so we can get it in the newspaper.
Thus far, what I call the local news gathering phenomenon is working in Tarboro, just as it has in most communities I’ve lived in.
It consists of frightening one’s newspaper staff by telling them the ultimate goal is to get rid of as much wire news as possible and replacing it with local news.
The key, or course, is you. As you see what we are trying to accomplish, you help by sending us more local news and the circle (and cycle) of local news grows and becomes more healthy.
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We understand there is an outside sales force at work in Tarboro and Edgecombe County, selling a product they are pitching as “helping us out here.”
Methinks the only thing it’s helping is the bottom line of the out-of-county firm who came up with a list of projects to boost sagging revenues.
If they visit you, listen for the sucking sound — that’s your money being sucked out of county!
We’ve added daily television listings to the newspaper, replacing the weekly book and, by and large, you’ve liked the change. However, public television is not an available listing in that package and we won’t be adding it.
(John H. Walker is editor and publisher of The Daily Southerner and may be reached at 823-3106.)
