Usually the newspaper is on the reporting side, not thereceiving side of community awards. Our job is to report on theaccolades, not accept them.

The awarding of The DAILY LEADER as the 2003 Industry of theYear by the Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce is anappreciated honor.

Historically, newspaper publishers tend to shy away fromself-promotion in their editorial copy for fear that readers willlook on it as just that — self-promotion. Credibility is theconcern and the fear of losing it.

But since it is our 120th anniversary of the first copy rollingoff the press and since the chamber awarded us with this honor,please indulge me with some pride about this area’s communitynewspaper.

It was on Feb. 22, 1883, that a young crusading journalist namedB.T. Hobbs rolled off the first copy of his new newspaper – TheBROOKHAVEN LEADER. Only in his dreams could such success and growthhave come, not only to his newspaper but to his community.

While so much has changed since those early days, one that hasnot is the local ownership. In this day of mergers andacquisitions, The DAILY LEADER remains a locally-owned company.

Our interest is of this area and our profits plowed right backinto the local economy.

Statewide, we are only one five independently-owned dailynewspapers. Nationally, less than 250 of us can claim localownership.

In this day of mergers and acquisitions, a privately owned dailynewspaper is rare entity. We hope to keep it that way for years tocome.

Our 49 full- and part-time staff are local folks who have madethis area their home. Along with our 25 independent contractnewspaper carriers, we rank among the top ten manufacturingemployers in Lincoln County with an annual economic impact of $9.4million.

Some other facts and figures you might find interesting:

* We use over 692,000 pounds of newsprint each year.

* Applied to that newsprint is over 6,000 pounds of blackink.

* Over 32 million page impressions make up our 2.2 millioncopies printed each year.

* Our newspaper carriers drive over 636,168 miles per year in afour county area delivering your newspaper to your home for lessthan 30 cents per day!

While I thank the chamber for this recognition. It is theLEADER’s dedicated staff and carriers who are due the realaccolades. Without them, there would not be a DAILY LEADER.

The other thank you goes out to our readers and advertisers.Without your readership support, we could not attract theadvertisers who depend on us to reach their customers. At the sametime, without our advertisers, we would not be able to deliver anewspaper to our readers at such an affordable price.

Thank you, everyone.

Write to Bill Jacobs at P.O. Box 551, Brookhaven, Miss.39602, or send e-mail to bjacobs@dailyleader.com.