We try to make sure our advertisers and subscribers know how much we appreciate their support. They provide the financial means to pay the printer, the post office, the reporters, our ad sales consultant and all the other costs involved in producing stories for you every day and the print edition every month. But one person deserves public thanks who hasn’t so far gotten any: the Chronicle’s founding spouse Amy Crump.
When I told her in 2014 that I wanted to start a newspaper, she was all for it. She grew up with a newspaper. Her family owned the Weston Chronicle in the little town north of Kansas City for nearly a century. She remembers staying up all night as a kid, helping to get editions printed and out the door.
We took the name Chronicle in honor of her family’s paper.
But Amy didn’t just give permission. She has, behind the scenes, made it possible for me to devote most of my free time to helping keep our community newspaper going. Until mid-2022, I worked a full time job and worked on the Chronicle as a volunteer. My job did not pay very well. If our family had to depend on me alone for support, we would have had to choose between paying rent and buying food (only a slight exaggeration).
Amy works hard and gets paid well as a library director. Because of her, we have food, shelter and a few other things that make life better, like coffee, cookies and bicycles.
Because of Amy, I could afford to chase stories rather than dollars.
She also manages our out-of-town print edition subscriber list, has addressed and stuffed thousands of envelopes with copies of the Chronicle over the years (as has our son, Quincy) and has been extremely patient when I dash out to cover breaking news or spend all day at events.
Last year, I cut back to 25 hours a week at my day job so I could devote more time to the Chronicle. Then recently, two of our most important freelancers, Carole Sharwarko and Bruce Swart, got full-time jobs. That left a big hole in our production team, so I quit my day job and took over their tasks, managing web and social media content and designing ads and print editions.
Now, after nine years, I’m getting paid a little to do what I love. I credit all you subscribers and all you advertisers for making that possible. But without Amy’s support, I wouldn’t be able to make that dream come true.
Aug. 14 is our 36th anniversary. Happy anniversary, Amy, and thank you for being such a great partner.