One hundred issues. When you’re climbing a mountain, the experience feels challenging, exhilarating, defeating at times. But you’re curious: what does it look like from the top? In the world of publishing, though, you hope that the top never arrives. The top is what you strive for, not what you hope to achieve.
Our 100th issue is a celebration. Of the writers, photographers, designers, stylists, and illustrators who bring these stories to life through their curiosity, talent, and hard work, their desire to peel back the layers of the people, places, and experiences that make our community vibrate. That make it singular. That make it one of the best areas in the country to live. We are lucky here.
It’s a mark of gratitude to our advertisers, supporters, and readers, those who find value and purpose in the work we do. Those who help to fuel it.
It’s a look back at the beginning of this publication. Our founding editor Jack Bacot was the creative catalyst, along with our publisher Mark Johnston, who struck the matchbox to light the fire of TOWN. Art director Paul Mehaffey and I, then as managing editor, worked with Jack to produce the first issue that rolled off the presses—April 2011. Jack steered TOWN for nearly two years, then moved on to lead the marketing efforts of private jet company Tempus. Now, after excelling in the publishing world, Jack is the chief marketing officer for the accounting firm Elliott Davis, based in Greenville. Paul and I are indebted to Jack and to Mark for showing us the starting line and then leaving us to find the way.
We haven’t paved it alone. Without your stories, TOWN wouldn’t exist. We’re harnessing the progressive, creative, wonderfully special aspects of life here and packaging them into words and images. Like electricity, or a rock dropped into water, the reverberation is long. We want to be the light switch. But the light belongs to you, dear reader, for you create that which inspires us.
Because this community is growing exponentially, there will, thankfully, always be more stories to tell. This 100th issue is a snapshot, a moment in time. An opportunity to share what we’ve created in nearly ten years. It’s a pictorial history, a cultural witness. We are documentarians as much as storytellers.
Thank you for paving the paths for us to find.
Blair Knobel, Editor-in-Chief, blair@towncarolina.com
