Welcome to the First Official Edition of the
Clatsop Current News Group!
We are so pleased to share with you our vision for a new local, online, county wide, hyper-local, FREE newspaper for Clatsop County and the Washington peninsula area.
The dream of owning and operating a newspaper has been a lifetime desire of mine since I attended Mt Hood Community college as a journalism student over 40 years ago. Life has its funny way of making the journey much longer and between then and now I have held many different occupations. The longest and most rewarding has been, and is still, as a professional photographer in Warrenton for the last 25 years. It’s something I don’t think I will ever retire from. If you love something, how can you retire from it?
I honestly thought that being a photographer would be the last career I would hold in life because it has been so fulfilling and gratifying in so many ways. It was a career that found me, and it was a perfect match for me in every way.
As life would have it, things change. With the advent of the digital age, the demand for professional photography services have lessened and I have found myself with extra time on my hands. Then one day, as if God had other plans for my future, I was unexpectedly approached with an opportunity to purchase a small local newspaper.
The idea of adding a new venture to my life at age 58 was not something I took lightly. Did I really want to commit to something like this at this stage in life?
WELL, HECK YEAH!
If you know me, I have never run from a challenge. In fact, I relish the challenge of pushing myself beyond my comfort zone. I’m not afraid to tackle things and learn something new. Besides, how hard can it be? (More on this later.)
Long story short, after securing the funds from a lending institution, the deal for the small paper did not materialize as planned. That left me hanging with all the drive to do a newspaper and no newspaper to run. It was at this point I decided to venture out on my own and go the to “end goal”–the place I had planned to take the small publication over time–completely and totally online, county wide and FREE. I jumped in head first and so far it’s been an amazing process.
So, here we are today. After almost 6 months of planning, designing, organizing, and building a great team we are launching our first official publication. We’re so grateful for our freelance writers, editors, local contributors, and a loyal advertising base who believes in the “mega trend” of hyper-local online news.
Hyper-local is defined as “relating to or focusing on matters concerning a small community or geographical area.”
It’s our intent to bring to you weekly news that is fair, honest, unbiased, positive interesting, personal and most of all “hyper-local”.
You will read stories about your communities: familiar faces and friends, our senior citizens, college and youth activities, cultural events, the awesome environment we enjoy and work hard to protect, our beautiful parks and beaches and our local economy including business and industry unique to the Pacific Northwest. You’re going to be reading all about our own special way that we “do life” on the NW Oregon and SW Washington coast.
What you won’t read is divisive politics, hard news, and issues that can pit neighbor against neighbor. You can find that in dozens of places, and we will be sure to supply you with links to sources so that you can keep up on what’s happening outside our community. We won’t use our publication to tell anyone how to think or feel, how to vote or how to live. We will commit to showing everyone respect and we will do our best to gain your trust and admiration as a fair and unbiased community news source.
Our format is designed for easy reading and navigation. You will have a County Cover (front page) and individual tabs to Astoria, Warrenton, Seaside, Cannon Beach and the Washington Peninsula. Each publication will have their own news stories, police logs, sports column, school news, government news and event information specific to that city–six publications under one umbrella called The Clatsop Current News Group.
We have a lot of growing to do and we can’t do it alone.
In addition to many great columns on a variety of topics, you will find useful links to tide charts, road conditions, webcams, weather, movies, obituaries, want ads, and much more. We will also add more as we hear back from you on the things you would like to see in our publication.
We would like to welcome your input on content and submissions of articles, photographs and news leads. Our hope is to make this OUR paper; a paper that builds a stronger community, closer friendships, and prosperous businesses.
Thank you for joining us on this exciting new journey and chapter in Clatsop County and the surrounding local areas.
Lisa Lamping
