20 Year Anniversary
O
ur little magazine reaches a big milestone this April—20 years of publication. That is a reason to celebrate! In a world of digital stimulation it is comforting to know that there is still an audience for an entertaining printed read. The focus of our publication has always been to share what makes Brown County so special—why so many who could live anywhere else decide to make it their home and what it is about this area that inspires us to create. Hundreds of articles featured artists, musicians, storytellers, longtime residents, historians, performers, businesses, and characters. Through a mix of freelance writing, Our Brown County has been able to share a variety of perspectives of life here in the hills. The list of contributors is too long to mention here, but a few people made a big difference in the chemistry of our success. Without Bill Weaver, a longtime friend, I would not have had the courage to put the first issue together. George Bredewater’s photographs of more than a hundred subjects for more than a decade made articles come to life and influenced me as a photographer. Joe Lee’s drawings continue to make me and the readers smile. And Hank Swain shared his philosophy of living in Brown County with us until he physically wasn’t capable of writing anymore. The delivery truck dropped off 5,000 copies of the first issue to my garage in Helmsburg in April of 1995. I remember thinking “How am I going to get rid of all these magazines?” I thought maybe I would have to use them as wallpaper. But luckily, they were picked up and that was never a problem. We had more of a problem running out. We started with a monthly frequency (January and February were combined) and switched to being published every other month in the middle of 2008. Our Brown County is printed by a newspaper press and was entirely on newsprint paper until we added a glossy cover that same year. We were charged a lot
more for color in the beginning, so the early issues were mostly black and white. The software used to create ads and layout is a lot friendlier now and our computers are much more reliable than they were in the 1990s. Many births of our paper babies were difficult and stressful. I spent more than one night crying over lost work because of a crashed computer. The best part of having a publishing business has been the opportunity to get to meet and know many people in the community. I learned a lot about the tourism business here in Brown County by putting together ads for our customers. I met many interesting people by taking their pictures for feature articles. I’ve been fortunate to get to know many of the publication’s contributors personally and I continue to look forward to opening up the e-mails that contain their hard work. And thanks to Mom for making it happen! —Cindy Steele
March/April 2015 • Our Brown County 13