Ridin' the Rapids - August 18

When I talked with my sister last week she asked if I was sad to be working on this issue of River Reflections. I said no.

This edition marks the end of my personal involvement in producing a legacy newspaper. For those outside the industry - a legacy paper is one that's printed on a large newsprint press.

Too many other weeklies around this country have folded after their mailing and production costs became unsustainable. Luckily, I saw this coming about three years ago and began upgrading the Reflections website and a sister digital edition.

One of the reasons I wasn't sad was because I've been too busy. Since announcing the end of the regular print edition was coming the number of subscribers to the digital edition has grown from just over 120 to more than 600. That's an incredibly positive showing of support as well as a confirmation that the words that make up this publication every week are worth reading.

Another reason I'm not sad is that I've been looking over some of the thousands of back issues of River Reflections that were produced between 1978 and 2022. It's hard to avoid spending hours traveling down memory lane.

For this edition, I'd planned to show an orderly progression of articles or items reprinted from those old copies. Instead pages 6 and 8 of this issue contain a random sampling of stories and photos that reflect some of the flavor of life on the McKenzie River.

Another reason I'm not sad is that the start of this 45th year for River Reflections is filled with promise. Besides converting many existing print subscribers to digital subscribers, new readers have been signing up as well.

That's a good indication that this new iteration of the McKenzie Connection will continue - well into the future.