Archive: Opinions

Our First Issue: July 22, 2005This issue marks the seventh anniversary of the Lansing Star.  In April of 2005 we formed L-Star Publishing.  We made up our slogan, 'All The News From Home' and paid a graphic artist to develop our logo.  We put together a rough business plan, sort of.  We also began developing the paper on our new Web site.  I added a couple of articles and fake ads as placeholders.  Then I printed out screen shots of the site, which Karen and I mounted in a three ring binder along with demographic information and anything else we thought would be interesting.

We took the binder around town to sound out community leaders about the idea of an online newspaper in Lansing.  Two incidents were very encouraging to us.  First, when we showed the binder to Kirk Shreve, who owned Lansing Funeral home at the time, he pointed to the top banner on the front page and said, "I want that spot.  How can I get that?"

We were dumbfounded.  Our attorney had started the incorporation process, then gone on a trip to Italy.  Without the finished papers we couldn't open a business bank account, so we had no way to accept money.  We never thought we'd be making sales that early in the game.  So we shook on it, promising he would have that space when we started publishing.  Lansing Funeral Home has had that spot ever since, and we are grateful to Lisa Auble, the new owner, for continuing it.

2006

2008

The second incident happened in May.  I had started covering local news to see how I would like it, and to figure out how the weekly process would work. 

	Fun Fact To Know and Share Every issue has a volume and issue number.  For example, this is Volume 8, Issue 28.  We put a secret code in each article, so you can search the Star to find the articles that were in a particular issue.  The format is v#i#.  For instance, if you want to search for the issue from two weeks ago type "v8i26" into the Star's Search box (without the quotes).

But I was in testing mode, so there were only a few real articles on the site.  I posted an article on the front page that we would have a table at the Lansing Fire Department Carnival, and people should come say hello.  I didn't know whether anybody would, but it seemed like a friendly thing to do, and it filled up space on our Home page.

On the first night a couple came to our table.  They told us they were from Michigan, and were going to move to this area.  They found our Web site before they left and decided to come see us.  They asked us to recommend a realtor, which we did.

It was always our intention that the Star would target not just readers living in Lansing, but also people who have moved away and want to keep in touch, Lansing people who are travelling, and people thinking of coming here for vacation or to move here.  That was part of our decision to be an online-only newspaper.

Over the years we have been contacted by a lot of people who fit those categories.  In fact, I can always tell when one of our friends is travelling in China for work, because our hits from China go up those weeks.  But back in May of 2005 we never expected that to happen, especially because we hadn't even published our first issue!

2012We commit to our advertisers that we will publish 48 issues per year.  Three years we published 49.  This issue is our 343rd issue.  In that time we have published about 8700 articles.  If anyone asks I tell them I feel like a 10 mile per hour hamster on a 50 mile per hour treadwheel.  But I like the work, and we have tried from the beginning to find ways to serve the community.

After The Lansing Community News (LCN) shut down in 2000, many Lansing people felt a void.  That paper kept people connected to the goings-on in Lansing.  I know I was not the only one who avidly looked forward to new issues.  Karen and I hoped to fill that void when we started publishing the Star in 2005.  I am very proud that Matthew Shulman, who owned and edited LCN, wrote our first editorial in our first official issue, figuratively passing the baton from his much beloved newspaper to our fledgeling effort.  The first issue was published July 22, 2005.

And for what it's worth we're still here, walking that treadmill, a little out of breath at times, but still doing our best to bring you 'All the News From Home'.

v8i28