First issue of the new year

Today's is the first issue of The Record-Courier's 131st volume. Looking back on the last 13 decades, there have been a lot of changes.

For the vast majority of its history, the newspaper published every Friday, and generally consisted of four broadsheet pages.

As the prosperity of the Valley expanded and contracted, so has the newspaper's size. Looking at the volumes in The R-C's morgue is like looking over a bar graph of the Valley's growth.

The last time a year's worth of R-Cs fit into a single book was 1977, and it was a really thick book. Not two years before, in 1975, an entire edition consisted of 10 pages.

It's been a book a quarter ever since.

Nov. 16, 1989, was the last issue before the paper expanded to two editions a week. That issue consisted of 66 pages. The next Thursday's edition was 44 pages. The following Sunday was back up to 66 pages.

In the past two decades we've altered our dates of publication, and altered size a couple of times, at first just taking some off the edge, and then on April 1 taking a bunch off the top.

But despite news to the contrary, those of us who live by the printed word continue to survive and thrive, in this place at least.

The Carson Range continues to rise in our banner, as it does above Carson Valley.

Like the mountains, we stand witness to this place and its people. Our promise is to continue to fulfill that duty for so long as we are able.