Welcome to new readers of The Panolian.

David Howell published the last edition of The Southern Reporter this week. The Panolian circulation clerk Maranda Johnson has been working hard to create new Panolian subscriptions from The Southern Reporter subscription list. She began the process two weeks ago and should be finished by next Friday.

The process of merging the two publications — though we may not have realized it at the time — began in 1998 when The Panolian Sports Editor Myra Bean increased sports coverage to include North Panola schools in The Panolian.

Meetings of Sardis city government followed. My brother, Rupert Howell, has now covered meetings of Sardis city government and the North Panola School District Board of Trustees for several years. In 2007 I began reporting meetings and activities of the Town of Como and the Town of Crenshaw prior to that.

Our stories have been published both in The Southern Reporter and in The Panolian in an unofficial joint operating arrangement.

In coming months, we hope to expand the municipal, government and law enforcement coverage to include other areas of interest and life, but we need your help.

Nobody in this newspaper office is clairvoyant. We can’t know what is happening unless you tell us. If you have a story about someone, something or some place that you think would interest others, tell us. Even better, take a photo to share with us.

There is much discussion in today’s highly digitized world about the future of ink printed on paper as a source of information. We’ve wrestled with this for quite a few years now.

We also produce a website, www.panolian.com, where vital community information is posted as soon as we learn about it and available to viewers without subscriptions.

Viewers who subscribe to the online edition have access to a virtual newspaper just as it appears in print. They also have access to other subscription-based features.

Through all this, we’ve pondered options at how to best to serve our readers and/or viewers, and the only business model we’ve been able to come up with goes something like this:
We will publish a newspaper in print,  online and/or otherwise that will cater exclusively to Panola County news and its people. Each publication will include stories about such a variety of people and subjects that every reader should find his or her interest engaged somewhere among the pages and anyone who misses an edition feeling like his or her day is somewhat lacking for it.