As Hippo rounds out its 21st year I want to express my gratitude.
In the past 21 years, Hippo hasn’t missed an issue — that’s 1,092 issues published. This doesn’t just happen. It takes talented people, including our executive editor Amy Diaz, who is Hippo’s longest-serving employee and who contributed articles for free before we could afford to hire her. Over the past two decades she has guided Hippo in its focus on local events, food, music and art. She and her team take these subjects seriously and cover them with professionalism. And it does take a team. Amy’s team includes long-time managing editor Meghan Siegler, food reporter Matt Ingersoll, arts reporter Angie Sykeny, copy editor Lisa Parsons, music reporter Michael Witthaus, Music This Week listing coordinator Michelle Belliveau and contributors John Fladd, Jennifer Graham, Chelsea Kearin, Michele Pesula Kuegler, Dave Long, Fred Matuzewski, Jeff Mucciarone and Eric Saeger. These are the folks who cover the stories and write the columns that make Hippo so interesting each week.
The production team, led by Tristan Collins and supported by Jennifer Gingras, takes those stories and shapes them into the Hippo we’re used to reading each week. Tristan and Jennifer also build many of the ads in each issue. A lot of time and creativity goes into graphically building each issue for readers.
After every page is finished and approved, digital files of those pages are sent to a commercial printer in New Hampshire, where they print 30,000 copies (this is more than any other publication in New Hampshire) and truck them to our warehouse in Manchester. From there our distribution team, led by Doug Ladd, takes over. Over the course of three days, Doug distributes those 30,000 copies to hundreds of locations in and around Concord, Manchester, Salem and Nashua. Doug does this with the support of Dave Boggess and Stephen Valido. Rain, snow or heat, these guys are out there every week moving thousands of issues.
To pay for all this, which is free to readers but not free to make, our sales team — led by Charlene Nichols, Alyse Savage, Roxanne Macaig and Tammie Boucher — works with local businesses to place ads in each issue. It’s hard work that takes a lot of creativity and perseverance. Without that we would not be able to publish. Hippo’s advertisers pay to reach you, our reader, to let you know about the events, goods and services they are offering. We are grateful for their support. And we are grateful for readers who continue to support us by reading and by becoming sustaining Hippo members. I feel strongly that Hippo has made New Hampshire a better place to live. At the same time, New Hampshire has made Hippo better.
I’ve thought a lot over the years about what makes a place a place and what makes community. In our society we can pick up and move someplace else. What keeps us here? What is the give and take of a community? What responsibilities does the community have to us and what responsibilities do we have for the community?
Much has been made of blue states and red states, of conservatives and liberals, of those pro this and anti that. And it can seem that that defines us. That we’re nothing more than not-those-folks-over-there. Social media does a very good job of helping us find community but also isolates us from a broader community that we actually live in. As we all know, there aren’t actually blue or red states. People everywhere have all sorts of political views. Does that define them? Are they moms or dads? Are they volunteers?
At many points in human history (and in this country and state) we were first defined by our religion or our race or ethnicity. We’ve mostly gotten past that (mostly — clearly more work needs to be done when it comes to race). Do we want to move backward or sideways and be defined by who we may vote for in one election cycle?
I sure hope not. I’ve made a conscious decision to not use social media because I believe it’s harmful to its users and harmful to our community. It too easily pushes us into one group or another when we’re really more than that. It’s too easy to inflame passions with false information. It’s too easy to be part of blue America or red America.
We’re really part of a place, a community, where we share neighborhoods, roads, schools, churches, jobs and parks. That is Hippo’s main goal — to continue to connect people in our community — to bring us together and to support each other. It’s a mission I’m proud to be here to support. And I thank you for continuing to support your community and us.