The more things change, the more they stay the same

Tomorrow marks my ninth anniversary at the helm of the Boulder City Review.

It seems as if it was just yesterday. I was nervous but had a vision for what I believed the paper needed to be. I remember the day so clearly.

So much has changed since then, and yet so much is the same.

I was reminded of this not too long ago when doing some research and stumbled across the first issue of the paper, published Oct. 29, 2009.

There was no editor that day, and no regular staff members. And while my name was nowhere near ready to be published as part of the team, my fingerprints are all over the issue.

I was among those at the Las Vegas Review-Journal who sprang into action Oct. 22, 2009, to help create the paper you are reading today. I worked behind the scenes to get stories ready to print and was instrumental in the paper’s look, helping create design elements.

From Day One I worked on the Boulder City Review, editing stories and designing and proofreading pages. So when it came time to take over as editor, I was extremely familiar with the city, its activities and its people. About the only thing I lacked was a literal road map of where things are — and that was an easy fix.

But perhaps the most important thing, something that was instilled with that first issue, was a sense of community and the important role that a newspaper plays to the town it serves.

“This is a first draft of what the Boulder City Review will become,” wrote Geoff Schumacher, who was overseeing the new paper. “Considering the amount of time we had to create it, we are proud of this first issue. But it’s only the beginning.”

That’s something that I think about every day and I work tirelessly to continue building upon that foundation.

Reading that first editorial is like reading the first one I wrote after I was named editor. The ideals and goals are virtually identical, all centered on key journalistic principles I learned when I embarked on this career. They are the same ones journalists across the nation and perhaps world operate on.

Balance. Fairness. Accuracy. Watchdog. Variety.

Now, as we did then, the Boulder City Review aims to tackle issues the community faces while highlighting achievements of its residents.

Surprisingly, many of the articles in that first issue are topics that remain important today: utility rates, Hoover Dam, neighborhood activities, residents who make the community a special place to live and high school sports.

And while we are not always perfect — we are human after all — we strive to produce the best newspaper possible. If we make a mistake, we will correct it.

It’s been an interesting journey and I’m eager to see where the next nine years take me and the Boulder City Review. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

Hali Bernstein Saylor is editor of the Boulder City Review. She can be reached at hsaylor@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9523. Follow @HalisComment on Twitter.