This week marks my fifth month in Suffolk, and as I have written numerous times, the experience has been one I could never have expected. From the warm personal welcomes both Nikki and I both have received from the community to the gracious acceptance into the Suffolk News-Herald family, this move has been absolutely amazing.

As I said early on, my hope was to help the staff here continue a long tradition of excellence in serving the Suffolk community and make whatever contributions I could to continue to grow the reach of our company within Virginia’s largest city.

And it is that word “reach” that has become our driving force here at the News-Herald.

In everything we do, in every decision we make, our goal is to grow the number of area residents we reach each and every day.

Through our daily newspapers, our Web sites, our daily email and our new magazine, Suffolk Living, our reach has grown dramatically in recent months.

And while this growth is thanks in part to the hard work of our staff, it is to the growing partnership with the Suffolk community.

The calls we receive each day offering news tips, accolades and criticisms goes to improve and build that relationship with the community.

I often times tell people that the Suffolk News-Herald is a business, but it is a newspaper that is owned by the community it serves … Suffolk.

At times some ask me do I get tired of the critical emails and critical calls that I receive sometimes. My response is “absolutely not.”

It makes me so proud those who call to complain – and those who call to provide news tips and compliments – think of this as their newspaper. They think highly enough of us to feel comfortable to call us with those comments – both critical and complimentary.

As Suffolk continues to grow, it is our job to grow along with it. That is why that word of “reach” is a word we often talk.

In addition to the more than 11,000 newspaper readers each day, 3,000 receive our daily news e-mail and thousands more log on to www.suffolknewsherald.com. Needless to say our reach is sizeable, but there is still room for growth.

And, just recently, the launch of Suffolk Living puts us in position to reach even more area readers. Each quarter, more than 15,000 magazines will be distributed to more than 200 area locations.

Over the coming months, we will continue to make changes and offer new products to better serve this community – our community – and grow along with Hampton Roads fastest growing communities.