Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

As I write these words, so far I have spent less than a week on the new job, and less than a week in Alaska.

I am very excited to be here, because already I have noticed a few things. First, everyone here is friendly, and everyone knows everyone. So when someone new shows up - me - a lot of people suddenly want to know who I am. One person actually started the conversation by saying, without any preamble, "Hello. Who are you?"

The second is people here read the paper and love the paper. I know this because many of the people I have introduced myself to finish the sentence when I start to tell them who I am. They already know because they'd read in the paper that this new guy is coming to town and will be taking on Kyle's duties at the paper. Yeah, that guy is me.

My name is Lee Zion, and I have taken over as the new editor at the paper. As Kyle mentioned last week, I have been in many places throughout the United States. Mostly small towns, like Harrisonburg, Va., Bryson City, N.C., and Lafayette, Minn. I've found the experience in small towns greatly rewarding, because work in a small town fits a philosophy I have had for decades. Newspapers have a place in the world when they focus on local people doing local things.

The irony is in these modern times, people can find out what's going on around the nation and halfway around the world, at the push of a button. But these same buttons can't tell you what's going on in your hometown. No, for that you have to go to the newspaper, or in the very least, the Web site run by that newspaper. The Chilkat Valley News occupies a valuable niche even in the age of clicking and zooming, because there's no one else out there doing it. I hope to have some say in keeping the newspaper profitable and a source of great content. I plan to do this for a very long time.

That means something that is often referred to as "refrigerator journalism," or, in other words, pictures of kids doing stuff at school, of families out on the lake, whatever is going on in town. I want people to see themselves in the paper. The way they want to be seen.

And then people will clip the photos, clip the stories, and put them up on their refrigerator.

I've had the same philosophy since before the time there was an Internet. Or, more accurately, the Internet existed, but only as a BBS board for lonely Star Trek geeks. You had a choice of either amber or green text against a black screen, and if you got tired of one color on the screen, you could change to the other. That was it.

Oh, yes. And dial-up modems that tied up your phone lines whenever people got online. The modems made a distinct, metallic clang that went "bee-you bee-you." Everyone of that era remembers that sound. No one wants it back.

This was about 30 years ago, and the Internet has grown leaps and bounds since then. But we can all be grateful that the Chilkat Valley News is still here, putting out copy every week, on good old-fashioned newsprint. A paper that is archival, and ready for your refrigerator.

For now, that's just scratching the surface. We can get more into who I am as time goes by. And the stories, I promise, will not be boring.

One last thing, for now. On Saturday, I walked to the fairgrounds to cover the Spring Fling event. I was about three-quarters of the way there when some guy offered me a ride in his truck for the rest of the way. He just drove up to talk to me. He told me his name, then told me not to tell anyone that he told me his name.

So - nope nope nope. I have nehhhhver met a man who told me his name, then told me not to tell anyone he told me his name. Nope, this nehhhhver happened.