The Mountain Citizen is celebrating the 32nd year of its name this week, even though the publication derived from two newspapers – The Martin Countian, which began publishing in August 1975 and The Mercury, which was published first in 1970.

The Martin Countian and The Mercury became The Martin Countian and Mercury near the end of 1988. Two years later, the paper got new owners and a “new” name, The Mountain Citizen — the longest-running newspaper banner in Martin County’s history.

The most significant difference between 1990 and 2022 is technology. In 1990, we were cutting and pasting the news on graph sheets (yes, paper sheets), rolling black and white film, developing photographs in the darkroom, and driving our graph sheets to the press for printing.

Times have changed.

In the early days, the paper showed off, winning a few press awards.

We got over that soon enough.

Our real pride comes from doing our job – reporting the news in a hard-hitting fashion when the need arises, highlighting the accomplishments and achievements of county residents, and promoting our schools, sports programs and all things that make a community.

Over the years, the Citizen has faced special challenges just in publishing in a small county where the backlash is real.

Sure, we’ve been kicked out of school a few times, shunned at the supermarket once or twice and blasted on social media from time to time.

We’re OK.

We’ve also been welcomed with open arms.

None of it goes to our heads.

Our work is hard and unglamorous, but we know the value of the newspaper. Small communities need a source of information on local issues – from proposed tax hikes by locally based taxing entities to how our students are performing and what’s happening with our drinking water.

There’s no substitute for a county newspaper doing its job.

You won’t get Martin County’s local news from larger regional or state newspapers or TV stations. You can only get it from your community newspaper.

As we celebrate our 32nd name week, we wish to thank our readers and advertisers for supporting us and allowing us to serve as a watchdog and an advocate for our readers and our community.

We hope the newspaper will continue running for Martin County for as long as the world turns.

Happy name week to us.