This paper that you’re holding, friends, has been around awhile. Since 1909, to be precise. That seems a long time ago.

The Washington Daily News has undergone numerous changes across all those years. Changes in format, content emphasis, photographic capability and even the actual size of the pages. The technological advances in putting together this paper — all newspapers — have been little short of amazing.

Have there been other newspapers published here in our fair town? Oh, yes. Many.

If you have the time, take a look at those many papers, and the year in which each was established: American Recorder 1815; Washington Whig 1821; Freeman’s Echo 1828; Washington Herald 1828; North State Whig 1834; Republican 1839; Rough and Ready 1848; Washington Dispatch 1857; New Era 1862; Union Advance 1862; Washington Gazette 1872; What Next 1875; North State Press 1877; Washington Progress 1886; Washington Daily News 1909.

Now, that’s a lot of newspapers for a small town in a not very densely populated county. Some didn’t have a long publishing life. Many towns, and most cities across the country, often had two or more newspapers being published at the same time. Bear in mind that newspapers were the primary news and information sources for at least two centuries.

And my, how things have changed. But that’s a whole ‘nother thing. For another time, perhaps.

For many of us, reading a newspaper on a daily basis has been an almost life-long enjoyment. Not so with the generations that have come after. A pity.

For us, for our demographic, let’s just keep reading. Our newspapers.

Let the presses roll.

Note — The source of much of this information was from “Washington and the Pamlico,” compiled and edited by Ursula Loy and Pauline Worthy, two long-time librarians, as part of the 1976 Bicentennial observances.