By Bill Marcum

Today is the start of a new era at The Courier-Herald, as you can see by the new compact design of the newspaper. This publication’s sister newspaper started in 1900 in Enumclaw and at that time was produced at this size. It remained a tabloid until about 1917 when it was transitioned to the broadsheet paper readers have come to expect the past 93 years.

The Bonney Lake-Sumner Courier-Herald doesn’t have quite the rich heritage, but has served its community proudly for more than six years.

This transition will allow us to provide more color pages for photographs and advertisers. I have spent my entire career in the newspaper business producing full-size broadsheet newspapers. I was really not sure about this change and how I would like it. My parents were here a month ago and I was explaining to them what we were doing and showed my mother a tab-size newspaper, the Maple Valley Reporter. Her first comments were, “I like it, it will be so much easier for me to hold up and read.” She explained the broadsheet pages are so wide it is difficult for her to hold her arms up that wide for long periods of time reading the paper.

“This will be a lot easier and cause very little discomfort,” Mom said. I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks, Mom.

During the past few weeks I have been reviewing old volumes of The Courier from the 1900s and the stories are amazing. The names of families in Enumclaw and Buckley remain familiar names today, generations of families who have made Enumclaw and Buckley their home for the past 100 years. Sumner boasts a similar history and Bonney Lake, a relatively new city, is well on the way to establishing generational bonds of its own.

I will not be around 100 years from now, but I hope when someone looks back to read The Courier-Herald from 2010, they too will be amazed by the continuity of the communities, of the similar family names and by the important roll The Courier-Herald will have played in the lives of the residents of Enumclaw, Buckley, Bonney Lake, Sumner and surrounding communities.

After nearly 110 years, today we take the next step in the evolution of The Courier-Herald. What is most amazing to me is it will once again look like the newspaper your great-grandfather held in his hands every week in the early 1900s.

Let us know what you think. This is new to all of us and we would like to hear your thoughts, suggestions and concerns.