When I came on board as the publisher of Good Times a year ago, the lease was up at the office where the paper had resided for nearly 20 years, and a move to new offices was imminent.
The new Good Times office had a room that could be dedicated to housing the paper’s archives in one place, like a library reading room. Once our office manager and I unpacked 40 years of Good Times issues and put them in order, this immediately became my favorite room in the office.
I recall standing alone there, feeling moved by the staggering amount of energy and talent of perhaps a thousand staffers who contributed their blood, sweat and tears to these 2,080 issues. The many more thousands of letters to the editor contributed by engaged readers. The work of numerous freelance artists, photographers and writers that grace the pages.
I felt then, and still feel now, an extraordinary responsibility and indebtedness to those who came before the current team. I’d like to extend sincere thanks to all of you who discussed and debated what to say, how to say it, how to present information graphically, to those of you who fretted over a word, considered the choice of a font, delivered the paper in the middle of the night, helped local businesses market their products, and cleaned the office. And, most importantly, to the Santa Cruz readers who have picked up Good Times week in and week out for the last four decades.
See the editor’s note to get a sense of the scope of history we’ve tried to present in the following pages, and enjoy this 40th anniversary issue!
JEANNE HOWARD | PUBLISHER
Inside this section: 40 Years of Good Times, 40 Years of Alt Journalism, 40 Years of Culture, 40 Years of Activism, 40 Years of Feminism, 40 Years of Food, 40 Years of Tech, 40 Years of Higher Education, 40 Years of Growth
