Connect with us
[the_ad_placement id="manual-placement"] [the_ad_placement id="obituaries"]

Opinion

What a year it was

Published

on

(photo by David Day)

As 2021 begins, we’re taking a look back over 2020. What a year it was.

COVID-19 dominated the news and our lives. Nothing is the same, and it looks like it will be another three to six months at best before things start to get back to something close to our pre-COVID lives. Will shaking hands make a comeback or will we keep doing the fist bump/elbow bop?

Locally, crime also was a big factor in the news, especially as we’ve seen our younger generation turn to guns to settle their disputes. The rash of shootings and murders have shaken our community. For what it is worth, it is not just Vicksburg; the pandemic and forced quarantines have made everyone edgy, and violent crime was up everywhere. Regardless, we have a problem here. Our hardworking law enforcement officers and other first responders feel the heat, and we ask that you continue to support them in their efforts to keep us safe.

If the community works with the police, there is no way those with evil intent can win. We can all be part of the solution to our crime problem.

At the Vicksburg Daily News, we expanded our team so you can get the news you deserve quickly, fairly and with an understanding of the local community from Vicksburg’s only locally owned news source.

Like any news organization, we take great joy in presenting stories that help someone along or improve a life. The COVID parades are one of our favorite things to cover because lots of people coming together to show love is always a good thing. Thank you for letting us into your events.

Then there is the issue of what to report and what is proper to show. Almost every one of our accident reports has someone commenting that they hope the family knew first. We treat every incident as if it was our family or our property we are reporting about. We also understand that “purity posts” and “virtue signaling” are things, and some folks just like to stir the pot. It is the nature of internet communications these days. We appreciate that 99.9% of you trust us to present what is proper. We sure try to do the right thing.

We also appreciate that when you hear a siren you go to VDN to see what is happening. Over the past year, you’ve logged on to the Daily News millions of times.

The traffic on our Facebook page is, on average, three to five times larger than any other local news source. If you’re interested, we’ve got the numbers and would love to show them to you. Our advertisers have had their ads seen almost 75 million times in 2020 — 74,321,349 to be exact at last count. Click the Contact Us link and help us get your business in front of our readers.

Thank you for making the Vicksburg Daily News the source for local news. As Vicksburg’s only locally owned news source, we are invested in Vicksburg. This is our hometown. We will get you the whole story, including the history behind it, because we’ve lived it with you.

We also want to thank you for all the votes you’ve cast in the “Best of Vicksburg.” It is one of our favorite things to let a hardworking member of the community or a locally owned business know the rest of our community thinks they’re the best. When we began the effort, we decided to make it extra special, and we present winners with a nice trophy to show off and a story to highlight their win. They never have to pay us for winning the honor, and it’s you, our readers, who decide the winners.

As we move into 2021 our plans are to continue our growth and branch out a bit as well. Edwards, Port Gibson and Yazoo City have been big fans of VDN, and we try to keep up with goings on in those communities as well. We look forward to serving them along with the Vicksburg Warren County community.

I want to offer a special thank you to our advertising partners. Without them we couldn’t provide this service to you free of charge. If you are thinking about spending your hard-earned advertising dollars in Vicksburg, we challenge you to check the numbers. No one else is even close. We can show you how many people see the ad and exactly what you are paying for. Our rates are the friendliest in town, too.

Thank you for making Vicksburg’s only locally owned news source, the Vicksburg Daily News, Vicksburg’s largest and most-read news source.

Happy New Year!

See a typo? Report it here.