General Manager’s Note — August 2007
General Manager’s Note — August 2007
Written by Karin Shaver Tuesday, 07 August 2007
Six months ago I was a Home Depot store manager in Fort Worth and was in town visiting long-time friends Jennifer and John Garrett. John had been a director at the Austin Business Journal, but left because he felt passionately that there was something missing in community news for northern Travis and Williamson Counties. In 2005, he started Community Impact Newspaper with a vision and three people in the game room of his house.
The response was so positive that he was able to add a Cedar Park/Leander paper and a Northwest Austin paper within 18 months and was now up to 23 employees. During my visit, John told me about his plans for expanding the company again, and before long I was hanging up my orange apron for a run at the newspaper.
As a new employee, I am amazed how many times readers thank us for our publication and even tell us they fight over who gets to read it first.
I met a business owner in Georgetown who was interested in the Gabriel’s Overlook controversy that we covered in our Cedar Park/Leander paper. He told us that after reading our article, he finally understood both sides of the issue and was truly informed. This type of feedback is what keeps us going.
My family moved to Pflugerville in 1985 when I was in fifth grade, and I lived in Central Texas until 2000. I remember going to Georgetown prom in 1992 when the city had one 4A high school and there was no such thing as Sun City. My memories of Hutto include our high school student council Adopt-a-Highway project on an uninhabited FM 685 that connected Pflugerville to Hutto.
If someone would have told me in the ’90s that there would be a toll road connecting Georgetown to Hutto or that Taylor would be building a $6.2 million sports complex, I would have thought they had a few screws loose.
It is such an exciting time for Georgetown, Hutto and Taylor and we are honored to bring you the inaugural issue of Community Impact Newspaper to help you better understand your community. We welcome your feedback and ideas.
Karin Shaver
kshaver@impactnews.com
0 Comments 
