20 Years of Akron Life: Our Founder Thanks Readers

{This column by Akron Life founder Don Baker Jr. originally appeared in the inaugural March 2003 issue of Akron Life & Leisure.}

I don’t know what I expected after the publication of our first issue of Akron Life & Leisure: the magazine of Greater Akron. I think I was too busy helping produce it to think forward to what the reaction might be. I just assumed that some people would love the new magazine and some would hate it and a whole bunch of other folks would react somewhere in the middle. I guess I just wasn’t prepared for the overwhelmingly enthusiastic response we got from all of you who saw, bought and read our first issue.

I’ve been approached at church by people whom I didn’t think knew my name let alone knew I was the publisher of this new magazine. They wanted to congratulate us for producing Akron Life & Leisure and to tell me how much “we” need this magazine. People whom I hardly know have stopped me in elevators and hallways to tell me how much “we” need this magazine. I have received phone calls and emails from people I haven’t heard from in years to tell how much they liked our first issue. We have gotten letters from major civic and business leaders in the Greater Akron area, who actually thanked us for coming out with a publication about the Greater Akron area.

Usually, in the publishing business, the only time we hear from our readers is to tell us we made a mistake or how wrongheaded something we printed appeared to them. We did, I must admit, get a couple of corrections to our restaurant guide; seems a couple of the establishments we listed were out of business or we didn’t list some newer restaurants that were in business.

To all of you who have contacted me and the rest of the staff with your congratulations and words of encouragement, I say thank you. Thank you for validating our belief that the Greater Akron area is full of people just like you who care about this community and are as proud of it as we are. Don’t stop talking to us now that the first issue is history; we need to know what you think and base many of our story lines on suggestions from you, our readers.

On the cover this issue is a spectacular photo of the Akron Civic Theatre taken by our staff shutterbug, Ray Saviciunas. I think it is a breathtaking shot that brings out the color and beauty of one of the Akron area’s most treasured landmarks. This shot came about because we wanted to use our cover space to show off what we think of as the new Akron. The new Akron, as we define it, is the places we take visitors when we want to show off our hometown; the people we talk about when we give credit for all of the good things that have happened in our area over the past 25 years; and the events or things that we feel best define this new Akron. We have 10 issues during the balance of 2003. We have decided to showcase 10 people, places or things that epitomize the best this area has to offer. We have compiled lists of what we believe those people, places or things are. From that list we have chosen 10 to feature on our covers during 2003. I won’t tell you in advance which 10 made the cut, because I want you to share your picks with us. Email or call me or any of our staff with your suggestions. We want to celebrate our home with you.