The newspaper’s first editorial

    On November 27, 1974, the first edition of the Idaho Mountain Express hit the streets of Blaine County’s towns. This week, it celebrates its 45th anniversary.

    On this page, the founders outlined the newspaper’s mission. It is reprinted here.

    Founding mission statements and policies often become quaint and outdated as decades pile up. Today, companies spend hundreds of hours rewriting mission statements, only to rewrite them again a few short years later. People change, communities change, needs change and expectations change.

    Yet, each time we reviewed and reprinted this policy statement, it seemed striking for its relevance to present issues and conditions. The original policy was reprinted twice before, on the 10th and 30th anniversaries of the newspaper.

    It’s not that nothing has changed in 45 years. Far from it. Today, the newspaper is a twice-weekly miracle with a combined average print circulation of 22,000 a week and 60,000 unique online visitors each month. “Newspaper day” in the Sun Valley area is every Wednesday and Friday. The days in between are for online updates. Breaking news goes online whenever it happens.

    While staying true to its original mission, the newspaper and its dedicated staff have weathered droughts, fires, floods, avalanches and the annual thrill-rides of the seasonal resort economy.

    When the newspaper started, no one knew what the years might bring. That’s still the case. However, one thing is certain: The need for trusted community news reported by professionals that watchdog the public interest and write about the lives of people here will never change.

    Democracy and our area’s strong sense of community depend on it.

The “Idaho Mountain Express” will be a newspaper unlike any previously published in the Wood River Valley. Although the staff of the “Express” have all worked together elsewhere, all agree that there would be no point in mere repetition. The “Express” will follow a course of its own, and its staff will endeavor to publish a newspaper uniquely suited to the needs and interests of the people in the Wood River community.

    One of these needs is to give people a chance to see themselves. Our community is different than most, and the people here know it. We have ranchers and ski bums in nearly equal numbers, with most of the occupational gradations in between also represented. People here seem more independent than our urban-dwelling cousins, and of course it takes independence to find happiness amidst the low wages and uncertain working conditions which often prevail.

    All this makes for a dynamic community, one with more than its share of excitement and interest. The “Express” will aim to provide a reflection of this excitement and interest. It will be an unashamed booster of the good things which make living here different from living anywhere else.

    Another major area of concern at the “Express” will be the quality of the environment, both in the Wood River Valley and throughout Idaho. The Thanksgiving season is a good time to give extra thought to this. We should be thankful that we have a natural environment which still offers extraordinary quality. We benefit from this in two ways: we have the sheer joy of living here, and we have the raw material for our recreation-based economy. The “Express” will take aggressive stands to protect these assets in the months and years to come.

    In the best of times it is hard for the majority of our permanent residents to make their livings. Most accept this cheerfully, seeing it as the price they pay for the area’s other benefits. The “Express” will do what it can to oppose increases in the economic hardships which people of average resources must experience to live here. Many have a fatalistic belief that the Wood River Valley is doomed to become the exclusive playground of the rich. At the “Express” we do not share that belief, and we will search actively for ways to prevent that from happening.

    Finally, we hope that the “Express” will be accepted by the community as a public forum. Those who work on newspapers get a chance forcefully to express their views. However, they know, or should know, that they are not infallible. The best function of a newspaper is to provide a rallying point for public debate. If ideas flow in from all directions, then there is some hope that the truth can be discovered among them.

Load comments