Some time in the next couple of days as final documents are signed and files are shared The Roanoke Star website will become the property of Paradise Media, a digital / print marketing group, based in San Juan, Puerto Rico that owns media assets worldwide. The company is presently in expansion mode and sees The Roanoke Star as a good fit for their rapidly growing holdings.
Accordingly, some things will surely change about the site but the company desires to keep the same strong local, regional and state coverage that “The Star” is known for – and one way they will ensure that is by retaining all our existing columnists and contributors. (Who knows, you might even see a piece from this old publisher from time to time.) It’s also nice to be able to say that I trust the individuals we have dealt with as well as the contract that should allow both parties to feel good about the future.
Perhaps the best way to enter that future would be to honor something of the past 17 years (6270 days :)) by pulling a few short segments from previous headline articles that marked “milestone moments” for The Roanoke Star:
November 21, 2007 : “A Star is Born!
Welcome to your new hometown weekly newspaper – “The Roanoke Star-Sentinel!”
After many years of having only a single source for printed local news, Roanoke now has a new voice in town to provide, “community news and life perspective.” Publisher Stuart Revercomb and Editor Lawson Koeppel (formally with Main Street newspapers) have been working long and hard behind the scenes to put together a staff of writers and contributors that can consistently accomplish the paper’s primary mission. And it’s all in the name . . .
Star – to lift up that which is right and real and genuine about this community – the people and events that make us who we are – the real spirit of Roanoke that residents and leaders have worked so hard to create, that points us towards a bright and shining future for our valley.
Sentinel – to guard the truth, with consistent and complete coverage of key local issues that provides balanced reporting and equal editorial opportunity. To fully tell all sides of a story so that readers can make their own informed opinions and express them to positively impact others.
Beneath these “banner words” we offer our pledge to be just such a place for our readers. Sometimes we will get it right, and sometimes we will get it wrong – but we will never stop striving to improve and perfect our offering. We ask for your support, your patience, your input and your trust as we give our very best to serve you.
November 22, 2008: “One Year Down – At Least One More To Go”
It’s hard to believe that 52 issues ago we launched the Roanoke Star Sentinel under the not so modest headline, “A Star is Born!” Counting our quarterly TMC editions that’s over 660 broadsheet pages of news, sports, perspective and commentary pieces – not to mention calendars, pictures, pic-tags, crosswords, classifieds and advertising.
Did someone say advertising? Imagine the work that has gone into the production of the amazingly creative print ads found on these pages. Our creative designers have come up with some remarkably fun and effective concepts while meeting deadlines that would make a well-seasoned 1930’s Chicago Tribune editor swallow his cigar.
And conditions in our newsroom aren’t much better than his might have been. We work out of a small office with two at a desk on many occasions. There are dogs and cats about and sometimes lost children and while it’s usually dry and warm, the publisher has been known to yell, “Cratchet – no more coal on that fire!”
June 22, 2012 : “New Name, Old Intentions!”
Hopefully, it was hard for you to miss the new banner atop the Front Page that debuts today in this our 233rd edition of (drumroll please): The Roanoke Star.com! Yup, we’ve shortened our name and added an all too familiar moniker on the end.
The reasons are simple. In the fall of 2008, we launched a local web portal that used both Star-Sentinel content and live RSS feeds from other local media outlets. The blended concept worked well, and we continue to receive compliments on its clean, streamlined presentation and layout. But one issue remained in that we now had two brands to promote.
Meanwhile the news gathering ability and popularity of the print edition has continued to grow. As I’ve said before in these pages, “If love paid the bills, we could have all retired a long time ago.” But financially we obviously have to succeed, and looking to the future, it is clear we need to focus more on our online product while maintaining a strong print edition. Accordingly, the decision has been made to allow every newspaper we produce to promote the online component and visa-versa. Thus, the shortened single marquee: TheRoanokeStar.com.
November 22, 2014 : “Time Sure Flies When You’re Having Fun!”
Seven years ago on November 22nd 2007, after several months of envisioning, researching, planning and praying, two otherwise reasonably bright individuals (Lawson Koeppel and myself) pulled the cord on the project we had been working on and “The Roanoke Star-Sentinel” was born. (We shortened the name to The Roanoke Star in 2012.)
I say “otherwise bright” because if we had had any idea what we were getting ourselves into we probably would have immediately set out in search of a job digging ditches or mucking horse stalls. As Frederick Buechner’s grandmother advised him when he told her he was going into the ministry: “Was it your own idea or were you just poorly informed.”
At the time, we were given three months before we would have to close our doors as one business magazine publisher publicly forecasted that “our ink would be permanently dry in less than 12 weeks.” But as the famous sports line goes: “Not so fast my friend!” because we are still here and have now published 311 editions and optimism is high that we will be around for a great many more.
Along those lines, we will be making some changes in January. Readership on our website is growing rapidly and unlike other local publications, it will always be free. Accordingly, we are going to transition our print edition to a monthly product to be delivered on the first Friday of each month.
Finally, I would like to thank you, our loyal readers – without you we would never have made it those first few weeks, much less these last seven years. Here’s to what we have all accomplished together by God’s sweet grace.
November 22nd 2017 : “Ten Years of Publishing for The Roanoke Star”
About ten years ago in a land far far away, an amazing thing happened. A couple of people got together and envisioned a newspaper for the Roanoke Valley that would focus a whole lot less on what has been defined as “traditional news” (drug busts, traffic accidents, house fires etc.) and a whole lot more on the “positive people, places and events” that truly define our uniquely beautiful community.
And even more amazingly – far more amazingly, perhaps – it worked, and as of Nov 22nd 2017, The Roanoke Star (less the – Sentinel as it was originally known) will be TEN years old. As my father used to say, “How about them apples?!” As in all 362 of them that have been picked, prepped, prepared, printed, published and promulgated. I mean WOW – who would have believed it?
Well, we did.
Which brings us to today . . .
January 11th 2025 : “The Roanoke Star To Be Acquired By Paradise Media”
One thing is for certain, there are bushels and bushels of “Thank You’s” to go around to literally hundreds of folks who (in some window over the last 17 years) have, in one form or another plowed, tilled, watered and put in the day-in and day-out, dirt-dog hard labor to make this whole thing happen.
From Production Editors (Lawson Koeppel, Aaron Kelderhouse, Leigh Sackett, Stephen Nelson and Doris Hoffman) to core news and feature writers (Gene Marrano, Valerie Garner, Beverley Amsler, Scott Dreyer and the late great Bill Turner). Not to mention our Columnists, (that in addition to our present stable of 14 (see below!) have included Liza Field, Jon Kaufman, Brian Gottstein, Alisha Nelson, Hayden Hollingsworth, Caroline Revercomb, Dennis Garvin, Lucky Garvin, Dominique Mack, Jeff Ell, Jon Kaufman, Joy Sylvester-Johnson, Keith McCurdy, Robert Adcox and Stepanie Koehler – as well as the late Dick Baynton, Bruce Rinker, Jim Bullington, Mary Jo Shannon and Joe Kennedy.
To sum things up, we have been repeatedly blessed with just the right people – at just the right time – and as I have said on many occasions, that reality has been a wonderfully affirming benediction. Editors, writers, salespeople, webmasters, bookkeepers, drivers etc. have all appeared seemingly out of the blue and not a moment too soon to keep things ticking: Vickie Henderson, Rob Revercomb, Don Waterfield, Pam Rickard, Cheryl Hodges, Bill Bratton, Rob Turner, Natashia Pierson, Sheri Beveridge, Denise Knisely, Beth Anne Revercomb, Mark Fuller, Fred Price and Kate Ericsson.
Whew! (And at my age that’s likely forgetting a few.) I’m surely not counting a bevy of folks who may have spent less time as part of this ongoing creation but who nevertheless poured themselves into it.
Thank you – ALL of YOU. Together we have reached a lot of hearts and minds . . . and who knows, maybe even made a difference or two along the way.
May His Peace Be With You All,
– Stuart
Stuart Revercomb
Publisher
