The Beacon's Editorial Voice

By Sarah Pugh

Occasionally, we have visitors to the office or letters to the Editor wondering why the Beacon has no defined "editorial voice." There's a good reason for that, and we'd like to share it with all our readers in hopes of spreading understanding of our mission as a community newspaper, and to shamelessly dig for new submissions.

As a community newspaper, the Beacon's role is to provide a voice for everyone in the community.  Except for administration and ad sales, the whole paper is put together by volunteers, and they're not necessarily the same volunteers for each edition.

Moreover, steering decisions about the Beacon are made by the Board of Directors, which currently has six members. We're a diverse bunch, some of us in our early twenties, some of us seniors, some of us busy professionals, some of us stay-at-home parents, some of us have backgrounds in business or government, some in community activism. Our political views are likewise diverse. 

Our writers come from all generations, all walks of life.  They have different interests, different views, different priorities, and different skills.

"The Beacon" consists of all our contributing writers, board members, and other volunteers. We don't speak with a single voice. Even when it comes time to edit the submissions, every month the editorial board consists of a different subset of the board of directors.

This is representative of our community, a blend of different voices from different backgrounds, joined by our proximity to one another in this lovely little part of our lovely little city. We all have our own hopes and concerns for this part of the world, and the Beacon is here as a means to publicize all of those. 

In the good old days, nobody asked the soapbox itself to provide an opinion. It was just a platform to stand on in order to be heard. The Beacon is James Bay's soapbox, run with care and commitment by volunteers, to ensure that every resident of James Bay has a place to voice his or her concerns. Of course, we're not just about concerns. We're about human interest stories, history, recipes, photography, nutrition and health, whatever matters to folks in James Bay. 

If you want to see an editorial in the Beacon, write one! We are always eager to print new voices, and we, the revolving editorial board, love a diversity of thought and opinion. If you disagree with something you read in the Beacon, by all means write a counter-editorial or a letter to the Editor. Likewise, if you enjoy something you read, let us know about that, too.

The Beacon is a community resource. Please use it as such!