by Brett Ainsworth, Publisher

What does $75 buy these days?

Plenty when you sign up for two years of award-winning journalism from The Retrospect.

That’s 104 weeks of original, hometown reporting! (See page 23 for our latest awards haul.)

For those who are not current subscribers, this paper is now available online and in hand for less than a buck a week. Sign up today so that on your phone, tablet, desktop or in your mailbox - you will receive timely, community-focused news not reported anywhere else. Despite the withering of journalism everywhere, The Retrospect, your hometown newspaper, continues to deliver.

How do we do it? For starters, our professional staff all live here and have roots in this part of Camden County.

I like to kid that our world headquarters have been located in Collingswood for 121 years. We’ve never been anything but local!

We attend hundreds of public meetings - town government, school boards, planning boards, forums and so on - and our presence makes an impact. For this week’s edition, staff attended no fewer than eight public meetings.

Public servants, elected and unelected, know we represent you, the public, and our questions and reporting are done on your behalf. Ours, too, since we live here!

But wait, there’s more. We routinely file public records requests for government documents to keep an eye on what business is being done in the public’s name with the public’s authority and tax monies. We’ve been known to check the local authority’s math and point out when it’s wrong!

When you open our pages, though, our original reporting is much, much more than government coverage. We’ve got features, sports, local history, police reports and so much more.

We have connections to the community along with a deep trust that has been built over time. People like you reach out to us with tips about all sorts of local news and happenings.

We’re more than about breaking news first since, so often, we’re the only source of reporting. We work hard to report accurately, fairly and with sensitivity since this, too, is where we live. That’s how we keep your trust, an issue deeply affecting the broader journalism community.

Without the community’s continued interest and support, our mission of local reporting would ultimately fail. If you already subscribe, my thanks to you for making our work possible. If your subscription has lapsed or you have never subscribed please join our mission today so we can continue providing local news.

There’s so much to celebrate about our historic communities. We live among wonderful people and organizations, so every week we’re fortunate to share their stories. Unlike much of corporate media we feature good works and good news every week.

That’s another key to our success. We, too, see the good in our communities and enjoy elevating those stories.

So, if you are not a current subscriber, sign up today and join The Retrospect family. Subscriptions also make a great gift, especially to new neighbors and friends!

The cost is the same whether you want digital, print or both. The digital edition arrives Thursday mornings and print arrives on Fridays to local mailboxes. Digital-only works especially well for those out-of-country or out-of-state, including an ex-pat I know who lives in Gibraltar and travels often.

For your convenience, scan the QR code with this column or go online to theretrospect.com and click on subscribe at the top of the page. To mail payment fill out the subscription coupon on the back page of this issue and send it to The Retrospect, 732 Haddon Ave., Collingswood, NJ 08108.

Of course, you can also stop by our world headquarters and sign up in person! A two-year subscription is $75 and one year costs $50.