Country Living in the City

Central City News to Go Twice Monthly in January, Weekly in August; Will Have Lots of Special Editions

by Woody Jenkins

CENTRAL — In January 2011, the Central City News launched a one-year experiment on changing our publication schedule.  After being published weekly for many years, we decided to try something different.  From January to July of this year, we published on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month.  Then in the 2nd week of August, when school went into session, we resumed weekly publication.

We had believed that from January to July, there was significantly less news and less economic activity than August through December.  The schedule also allowed us to start a new monthly national conservative newspaper called Liberty Today.

Believe it or not, the weekly newspaper business can be very intense, even more so than a daily, because you have to do so much with very few people.  For my part of the job, being editor of the Central City News is about an 80-hour a week job, and it’s easy to burn out.  The new schedule allowed us to continue without “burning” out.

Ironically, our revenue was about the same, even with the economic decline.  Most of our advertisers like to advertise twice a month instead of weekly.

Anyway, our staff has decided to continue on the same schedule for another year — twice monthly January through July, and weekly beginning the 2nd week of August.

We appreciated your support for this plan during 2011 and beg that you indulge us again this year.

HHH

Jan. 9 is an Official Holiday. Yes, Jan. 9 will be an official holiday, but not because of the Tigers.  Once every four years, Inauguration Day is an official holiday in the City of Baton Rouge.  We hear Gov. Jindal plans to hurry up, get himself sworn in, and head off to New Orleans!

Wayne and Diane Leader’s Open House. Once again, Wayne and Diane Leader have a remarkable gift for the people of Central.  They are opening their home to community every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m.  You will love their decorations, both inside and outside the house, the giant Christmas tree in their living room (How did they get it in there?), their collection of LSU memorabilia, and the magnificent lake behind their home, which has also been decorated.  They may also have some snacks and finger food.  Everyone is invited, and please don’t miss it!  The Leaders are located behind AA Mini-Storage at 12414 Hooper Rd.

Will we have another White Christmas? Okay, here’s the facts: Nobody knows.  We know the chance of snow in Pinkham Knotch, NH, on Christmas Day is 95 percent, while the chances in Honolulu are 0.001.

The website www.about.com says the chances of anywhere in Louisiana’s having one to four inches of snow this Christmas is 0 percent.  However, since we had snow on Christmas for two of the last three years, plus add to that the fact that LSU is playing for the National Championship, I’m saying our chances of having one to four inches of snow on Christmas Day are 5 percent.  So be ready.