By Bob Tagert

This issue marks the beginning of our 37th year and our 433rd issue. Much has changed over the years. Back then, Old Town pretty much ended in the 700 block of King Street, and only King Street, and the two hundred block of Cameron Street. Today, very loosely, Old Town encompasses (east to west) from the Potomac River to the metro station and (north to south) from Montgomery Street to Prince Street.

How time flies. My former partner, David Underwood and I published the first issue of the Old Town Crier in January of 1988. I have to admit that we were not quite sure what we were doing but the opportunity seemed to present itself. The Port Packet and the Gazette merged and Old Town effectively lost its hometown classic rag. With literally no journalistic experience, no business plan and a credit card, we focused on filling that gap with only Alexandria articles about the folks that made Old Town what it was and what it has grown to be.

After a few years, we expanded our coverage and distribution to Annapolis, the wineries in the Blue Ridge and destination communities in between. When I moved my sailboat to Solomons, Maryland, we began distribution to Southern Maryland as well. Our theory was that a distribution “From the Bay to the Blue Ridge” would place Alexandria in the middle and became the heart of the publication.

Lani Gering took a buy out from her job at the USDA and joined us full time in the fall of 1994 just to “help out” until she decided if she was going to stay in the area or return to her western roots in Wyoming. She actually had legitimate managerial expertise and, more importantly, common sense. She soon became the operations guru. She got sucked into the vortex and has pretty much been the guiding force since. After Dave passed away in 2007, she became my partner. Her contributions are “priceless”.

We have had many very talented people cross our paths over these past 36 years. From contributing writers, photographers, ad reps and designers of whom we owe a debt of gratitude. Our content is the backbone of the publication and we have received many accolades over the years. We have been asked to submit the OTC in industry contests many times and I don’t know why we didn’t. Guess it just seemed a bit too self-serving. It is amazing that we have eight writers who have been penning a column for us every month for well over 25 years. A couple of them are really close to hitting the 30-year mark! This is a testament to us all.

Much like our dedicated writers, we have advertisers who have been with us almost from the very beginning – Landini Brothers, Fish Market, Warehouse and Imagine Artwear (it was Fiber Design back in the beginning). We are forever grateful to these businesses. It is sort of like a restaurant who has had lifetime employees in such a fickle business. We both must be doing something right. I would be remiss if I didn’t profusely thank all of those who have advertised with us over the years. Obviously, without you all, we wouldn’t be in business.

I have to chime in about the mess that the pandemic caused pretty much all small businesses. While the majority of monthly publications in our area stopped publishing for several months, we felt that we owed it to our readership to keep up the status quo. We lost about 70% of our paid advertisers since many were hospitality and tourism related. That was a major chunk of change. We dropped our print run since a majority of the distribution points were closed and sacrificed much personally in order to pay the bills. Those advertisers that continued with us each month all the way through and made that possible are Craftmark Homes, Landini Brothers Restaurant, Fish Market Restaurant, Imagine Artwear, Ten Thousand Villages and The Warehouse. We owe them a special debt of gratitude.

I want to extend a hearty “Thank You” to our readers. There are many of you out there that have been loyal from the beginning and have passed your enthusiasm for the OTC on for literally generations. I am always amazed at the diversity of people that we hear from each month via email, Google PMs, blog comments and even a few “handwritten” letters both at home and afar. We’ve had some pretty funny written communiques over the years. Wish we had kept them all.

Without these amazing people and all who have been part of this journey – good and bad – I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this today.

As we try to navigate 2024 amidst constitutional crisis in our country and wars in Gaza/Palestine and the continued invasion of Ukraine, we will keep our focus on the future of the Old Town Crier and our hometown of Alexandria, Virginia.

Wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!