Long view

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

One thing I love about this week’s cover story (“150 years of Reno,” page 10) is that it exemplifies something special that we do here at the RN&R: taking the long view.

We put the newspaper first. Sure, all of our stories also go up online, and of course we have social media accounts here in 2018, but we always put the newspaper itself first.

There are a few reasons. We like the look, the smell, and the tactile sensation of newsprint. For my eyes—lousy enough for glasses since the first grade—I’d much rather read printed text than scroll along on a palm-sized digital screen. Secondly, print advertisements are less intrusive and obnoxious than online ads or, even worse, radio, TV, or—horror of horrors—billboard ads.

Rather than the endless sprawl of the world wide web, we like the self-contained experience of reading a full publication. The classic sensation of reading a newspaper while having a cup of coffee. Or a beer. Or a bowl of ice cream. Or a fat spliff. Drawing mustaches on all the pictures.

We’re not usually the first ones to break news—we leave that to the digital outlets trapped in the Promethean hell of the 24-hour news cycle. We provide historical context and perspective. This is especially important in a place like Reno, where most of the population just moved here, like, last week. I bet a lot of folks didn’t know Reno is celebrating its 150th birthday this year. Yep, Reno didn’t just spring fully formed from Elon Musk’s head two years ago.

Of course, the long view that we take has nothing on the thousand-year photographs of Lake Tahoe concocted by artist Jonathon Keats. But we’re here to help tell his story (see “Window to the future,” A&C, page 14).