We're 5 and growing We're 5 and growing (January 28, 2005)

by Jeb Bing

T he Pleasanton Weekly marks its 5th Anniversary today, and what a great five years it's been. From local elections to a wide range of civic, academic, nonprofit, health care and business topics, we have filled more than 10,000 pages over the last five years with news, features, sports, photos and advertising specifically targeted to our Pleasanton readers. Since our first issue on Jan. 28, 2000, we've published stories about every neighborhood, every school and every organized sport in Pleasanton, and the list keeps growing. We're also at meetings of the Pleasanton City Council and school board, and we report on the actions and activities of the scores of other government organizations, committees, commissions, boards and task forces.

Our goal from the start has been to provide the most accurate and consistently reliable news coverage and commentary of interest to all of us who live and work here. That means information on current events, on entertainment and the arts, and features about those who are making a difference in Pleasanton through their work in education, nonprofits and charities. Our focus is entirely on Pleasanton. We live here and are vested in the community, just as you are. We seek stories about people, not institutions. In our coverage of community, civic and city government meetings, we report on issues being addressed, not simply on the meetings themselves. We've been doing this since our first issue, when we reported on the school district's interest in building another high school - a 950-student high school academy. Five years later, there's no new high school, nor even a 10th elementary school in the Vineyard corridor as once promised, but these are ongoing plans that we'll keep covering. From the debates back in 2000 on how to develop the Bernal property to last Tuesday's joint workshop of the City Council and Planning Commission on what to do about ever-increasing traffic congestion, you can count on the Pleasanton Weekly to give you all the details.

Since we are advertising supported, we also offer the very best in retail, real estate, service and entertainment and classified advertising, again targeted to our Pleasanton audience. In the early weeks of our paper, we had a generous handful of 30 or so advertisers. We now routinely carry hundreds of display and classified ads from those who recognize the Weekly as the most cost-effective method to reach the Pleasanton audience. Always looking for new and better ways to serve our readers and advertisers, we introduced earlier this month Fogster.com, a new service where you can instantly place free private party classified ads online day or night and automatically get a free one-line print referral ad in the Weekly.

In our first five years, we've learned the joys and challenges of publishing a hometown paper. We've especially appreciated the thousands of letters, e-mails, phone calls and the hundreds of photos readers have sent us from afar, including the 51 we are featuring in this special anniversary issue. We also thank you for your generous support to the Pleasanton Weekly's 2004 Holiday Fund. At $68,000, we're nearing our goal. I urge readers who would still like to contribute to this second annual fund to do so now. We'll double your contribution that will go to the eight nonprofits and charities we have selected. So drop by our downtown office at 4713 First St. with your donation or send it to us. Thanks for reading.

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