West Of Turns 10

This week’s issue marks the beginning of Volume 11 for West Of, which means that 10 volumes (or 10 years) are in the books.
While I’m proud to reach this landmark and fully appreciate just how hard it is for any small business to simply survive a decade, especially during trying economic times, I also have to keep things in perspective. After all, there’s another, much larger newspaper just across the Ashley River that has been around for more than 200 years.
So maybe 10 years isn’t that big of a deal? But allow me to bask in this achievement for a moment and reflect on how we got here and touch on some of the things that we encountered along the way.
Back in 2004, after nearly five years as a utility player for the Charleston City Paper, where I served as staff writer, calendar editor, music editor, and distribution manager, I made the decision to set out on my own. While I enjoyed the pot-stirring edginess that an alternative newspaper like The City Paper provides, I always had an affinity for community newspapers — the little hometown rags that cover specific parts of a town. And as a West Ashley resident, I had often wished we had one of our own, like Summerville, James Island, and Mt. Pleasant. So I decided to take my knowledge and my meager life savings to create one.
I called it West Of, an infuriatingly incomplete moniker that still frustrates people who just refuse to simply call the publication by it’s name. I’m always tickled when people refer to it as “West Of … Newspaper,” or “West Of … the Ashley” or “West Of … The Ashley Newspaper” or some variation of that, never quite able to end it with a preposition. No matter what you call it, I’m proud to have been at the helm for the last 10 years.
Looking back on the 500 issues of West Of, it’s really interesting to see how West Ashley as a community has evolved and how West Of as a newspaper has evolved. There’s been tragedy and triumph, heartbreak and heroics, tears and laughter.
The day our first paper was printed is a special day for me for a couple reasons. It was on the day that the first issue of West Of hit the printing press that a sweet, young lady came into the office, then located on Ashley River Road. She was a junior at the College of Charleston and heard from one of her professors that we were looking for interns. She had a pulse and was willing to work for free, so she got the position.
After her internship, she continued to do various work at the paper until she graduated the next year. At which point, she was officially hired as an advertising account executive for West Of.
A couple years later she and I found our selves more than just co-workers. And a couple of years after that, we were married. Today Lindsey Chambers is the sales manager at the paper.
So that first issue of West Of holds a lot of importance to me, both personally and professionally. It officially marks the start of my business, my dream. But it also is the day I met the love of my life. She has been a part of the paper literally since day one and I’m lucky to still be able to look across the office every day and see her sitting there.
We keep a framed copy of that first issue, Vol. 1, Issue 1 on the wall in the office. The stories in that issue ranged from the history of the Coburg Cow to Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr.’s State of the City address. But for me it holds a lot more stories than just those you can read within those 16 pages.
As you might imagine, inside that first issue were very few advertisements. Trying to sell ads for a newspaper that didn’t exist was pretty tough. Heck, selling ads for a newspaper that’s been around for a decade can still be tough.
But it makes me proud to know that there are a handful of businesses that trusted us in those early days who still advertising with us today. Thank-you to these companies and to every business who has ever spent one penny of their hard-earned dollars with West Of over the last decade.
Most importantly, thank-you to you, the reader, for picking up our little hometown rag every week for the past 10 years. Without you, there would be no advertisers. Without you there would be no West Of.
So please, keep reading and we’ll keep doing our best to deliver relevant, hyper-local news and promise to keep you informed and up to date as to what’s happening West Of … the Ashley.
— Lorne Chambers