Why Print?: From the Editor

Editing a newspaper is a bit like herding cats, but with a deadline. Here at Motif, where budgets are thin, our writers and artists are valiant and deserve praise. Every month they dip their brains into the world and distill their experiences into a few hundred words.

Our goal is to inform, entertain and occasionally provoke. While we spend a fair amount of energy with our online media empire (website, podcast and video channel), our core is still the old-school printed page.

I love newspapers because they exist in physical form, unfiltered by some billionaire’s social media algorithm. You might lose the paper, but if you stumble across it a year from now it will spark memories and smiles.

This newspaper is valuable. Trees died (or were recycled) so that you could learn about right-wing tactics in local politics, our state’s favorite fruit, what’s happening in the arts and which food trucks and beers are tasteworthy. I hope you’ll clip and frame this month’s cover by Erminio Pinque, our comics editor.

The pandemic put us into protective pods. Going out could kill you; it still might.

Even so, we print to encourage you and your friends to get out and experience the amazing amusements and delicious distractions that are unique to our small corner of the world.

We at Motif record the wonders of the moment.

Thank you for reading.