Change. It is inevitable. Whether big, small, personal, professional, welcome, feared or just mundane, all things will change in time.

An area that hits close to home for those of us who work in the news industry is the change in how media is consumed and delivered now. It’s likely not news to anyone that some of these changes have led many newspapers to scale back, discontinue print products in favor of digital or even, in some cases, shut down entirely.

Why bring this up now? I’d like to reassure our readers that we will continue to stay in print for the foreseeable future and have no plans to change that. With the recent closure of the other print newspaper in the area, the Outer Banks Sentinel, we have gotten some questions here and there asking if we, too, will stop. In short, the answer is no.

Regardless of the changing technological tides, we feel that print is viable and is still something people enjoy and appreciate, so we will continue to invest in our core product – The Coastland Times in print. We have spread out into the digital world within the past year and a half (about time, right?) and have gotten good feedback on our website.

Both our newspaper and website are valuable as standalones, but are better when viewed as companions. We are always looking for ways to improve and meet the needs of our readers and I welcome anyone who would like to make suggestions to email or call anytime. We would love to hear from you.

On a personal level, while I doubt when my great-grandparents started this newspaper in 1935 they could have seen this newspaper with an online presence, I do know it’s something my grandfather would have done at some point. He was not a big fan of computers for his own use, but he definitely knew how important advancing technologies were in this and other industries.

I am proud to represent the fourth generation of my family to manage this newspaper. I can’t remember a time when The Coastland Times wasn’t some major part of my life and am glad that it is something I am able to continue working in even as so many things change.

In the coming weeks, I will write more about The Coastland Times – our history, what we’re working on currently and what our hopes for the future are. Should there be anything you would like more information on, let me know and I will do my best to incorporate it into my columns.

For now, I will leave you with a piece that ran on the front page of our first issue in 1935:

THE TIMES, WHO IT IS AND WHAT IT IS

Somebody is always wanting to know all about the Times. Well it doesn’t belong to anybody especially, more than to its subscribers. Miss Elizabeth Hooker will manage its business; Victor Meekins has consented to give it the benefit of such newspaper experience as he has had, and to help edit it. Others will have a hand in writing and editing it, and later on, we expect to have an interesting announcement about other additions to its staff.

Miss Nell Wise of Stumpy Point will be circulation manager for a while.

For the Times is purely a Dare County institution, created to give home people a job, and to fill a place in the development of the county. It belongs to Dare County folks, and their support of it will determine its worth. Dare County has about everything else worthwhile, good hotels, good electric lights, good ice plants, good stores, good churches, good schools, and why not a good newspaper. A newspaper is the one thing needed in a community to keep all the people acquainted with one another, to keep home trade with home stores, to point out business opportunities to the people, and to unite the people as one in community service.

It looks like now is the time to start a paper. So we will have a good one while we are at it, because Dare County deserves a good one. It’s up to you.

Theresa Schneider is publisher of The Coastland Times. Reach her at theresa.schneider@thecoastlandtimes.com.

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