Many will wake up this morning and see this day as nothing more than a mad dash to another weekend — just your average Friday. But for all of us here at the Coastal Point (a select few in particular) today holds special merit. It’s not only a day to be proud of and a day to remember. It’s an achievement; a milestone.
Today, thanks to publisher Susan Lyons and editor Darin McCann, the Coastal Point celebrates its 200th issue.
“It’s truly an exciting thing to get the chance to do something from the start and watch it develop,” said Lyons, the co-genius behind it all. (If this story sounds biased, that’s because it is, and we freely admit it.) “It was great getting the chance to work with Darin again. This paper wouldn’t be what it is without him.”
Starting up the Coastal Point in 2004, a handful of employees would work until 3 or 4 a.m., producing 40-page issues.
“Getting everything done was very time-consuming,” said Lyons, “Sitting at a desk all the time can get stagnant. Starting the paper allowed me to get back on the streets, selling to clients again, doing what I love. I can go out in my kayak and snap some photos in the evening, and that’s my job! I love it. The paper’s really allowed me to get back to my roots.”
McCann, likewise, gave credit to Lyons for her contributions to and the ongoing success of the upstart start-up.
“I knew when we decided to give this a try it would work, because of Susan,” said McCann. “She believed it would work, so I believed it would work. And every person who has worked here since we started has shared her belief. It’s a real honor to work with someone who carries herself like Susan, and has her passion for this community. It’s contagious, and it reflects in our effort.”
Although the powder keg behind it all, Lyons credited the Point’s success to the staff.
“We have great people here who really put their heart into it,” she said. “A paper is only as good as the people who work for it, and I’d put our staff up against anyone. Everyone here’s dedicated and enthusiastic. It’s not a job for just anyone, and that’s what makes us special.”
McCann, too, said the Coastal Point’s staff has played a major role in making the job more of a passion for everyone involved, akin to an engrossing pastime rather than the daily grind to which many are forced to become accustomed.
“I can’t begin to say enough about this staff, or really any staff we’ve had since we started,” he said. “You sometimes just catch yourself shaking your head because you can’t believe how lucky you are to work with such bright people. Add in that we get to cover a community that has so many extraordinary characters, and you really get to enjoy a ‘dream job’ every day of the week.”
One person who has had his hand in almost every part of the newspaper is Art Director and office Eskimo Shaun Lambert (sorry, buddy).
“Coastal Point has been, without a doubt, one of the best places I’ve ever worked,” he said. “Susan and Darin have been great to me and our crew is, hands down, the best in the area. It’s been a privilege to work with people who are so skilled.”
He often looks back on the paper’s start, noting a familiarity, but also a distinct progression, too.
“It’s weird,” he said. “To hear 200 issues seems like a lot, but it seems like it all started yesterday. In the beginning, our crew was so small. It’s really been amazing to see how we’ve grown.”
Lambert has been instrumental in the Point’s Web site, a feature that was but a dream when it started four years ago.
“I’ve definitely learned a lot here,” he said. “I had been with other papers before, but there were still plenty of programs and formats I had to learn.”
For some, such as original reporter Sam Harvey, the experience has had quite an impact on their own identity.
“It was hard for me at first,” Harvey said. “It never really came easy, but a lot of people supported what I did. I was blown away that people were so nice to me.”
Establishing that connection throughout the community was what Harvey felt really made his job worthwhile.
“When I was writing, I was constantly meeting new people,” he said. “They’d start to recognize you and it felt good. After a while, you start to get a different perspective on writing. It’s almost like you’re a small-town celebrity. People want to come up and talk to you about local government or a new business.”
With this motivation to bring the community what they wanted, he pushed himself to the limit. “Writing as a reporter really forced me to look at what I had,” he said. “It gave me a realistic perspective on my abilities. It was amazing because I was able to learn something, and still be there for people who relied on me for information and entertainment.”
“I owe a lot to Darin and Susan,” Harvey said. “They really took a chance on me. I was straight out of school, and I really had never done anything like this before.”
A graduate of Delaware Technical and Community College, Harvey was armed with nothing more than a communication technology degree, a flimsy portfolio and a prayer.
“I always intended to write in print journalism, but I never knew it’d turn out this way. It turned out to be both a burden and an honor. It really brought out something different in me.”
Tricia Titus — who joined the Point as a reporter just six months into the new venture in 2004 and now serves as news editor, sometime technology columnist and living dictionary/thesaurus/style manual — said the success of the newspaper has been in taking hard-learned lessons and using them to produce the best of outcomes.
“Darin, Susan and I have all been in situations where things just didn’t work, where amazing people and their abilities — and the communities we served — weren’t being valued as if they were made of gold,” she said. “And I think Susan and Darin took what they knew to be a better way of doing things and simply applied it, like there was no other way of doing things for them. That’s the true mark of them as people, as bosses, and the core of what has made this newspaper work so well from the start.”
Like Harvey, Titus said she has been amazed at the welcome of the community for the Coastal Point and its staff. “I had a very embarrassing moment when I casually waved to members of the Bethany Beach Town Council in the annual Fourth of July Parade, and they all waved back and said hello to me by name,” she recalled with a note of chagrin. “Several people around me on the parade route commented on how it was nice to sit next to a VIP.”
But Titus said her work at the Coastal Point has been important to her because there was a need in the community for serious local reporting to help local residents, non-resident property owners and visitors alike keep up with what goes on in the area.
“I’ve had so many people walk up to me and tell me how happy they are that we’re here and that we pay such close attention to local events, that we attend as many meetings as we can possibly get to and report in such depth,” she said. “We used to joke that I needed a cot at Bethany town hall, because I have spent so much of my last three years there.
“But we really felt that we needed — and still need — to go the extra mile because the community deserved it and, as journalists, we had the curiosity of mind and the professional responsibility to do it on their behalf,” Titus added. “And Susan and Darin were the ones who gave us — not the permission, but the mandate to do that kind of work. And it’s been people like Sam, Ryan, Jon Starkey and John Denny who have helped us meet that goal, with a great group of people back at the office, like Carolyn Fitz, who’s been there from the start. They’re there late into the night and early in the morning, making sure it gets into the hands of the people each week and that coming to work every day is a pleasure.”
Beth Long, who had always stepped up to the plate no matter what was asked of her, has clocked her hours here since its start, too.
“Working at the Coastal Point during its debut was, and continues to be,” she said, “one of the most challenging, fun, rewarding, scary and enlightening experiences of my life.”
Starting up was no simple task, either. “While Darin, Susan and Shaun had plenty of newspaper experience between them, Sam and I had none. I had to learn even the most basic practices and vocabulary of the business. I felt as though the five of us were a family of sorts. And like all families, it has grown, with everyone bringing something unique. Susan and Darin have done amazing things with this paper and I feel privileged to have played a small part,” Long said.
I can’t say as much as those who have been here through the thick and thin, but I suppose I’ll take a stab at it, anyway. Being the newest reporter or newest employee in the whole Coastal Point family, for that matter, is never easy. It always seems like you’re waiting until that next guy who walks in with an application will take a seat at the desk next to you, so all of the spitballs, paper airplanes and incoming bricks can gravitate his way instead of yours. (I’m kidding about the paper airplanes.)
I had some immediate shoes to fill since I started a year and two months ago. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve introduced myself to someone around town who follows up with, “Do you know Sam Harvey? He’s a great guy. I liked him.”
To that, I subtly clench my teeth, put on a smile, nod in agreement, and go be the best darn Sam Harvey I can be. Though I’ve never really had the privilege to work directly with him, he has become a frame for my role as a reporter, my inspiration.
Darin and Susan have both spoken before about raising the paper as it were their own child, and truthfully, as one of the newest and youngest members of the team, I see what they mean. At times, I’ve experienced it all here at the Point — the temper tantrums, the kicking and screaming, the never-ending “Why” phase, and regrettably, I’ve even needed a clean diaper or two… metaphorically speaking, of course.
But in all honesty, both Susan and Darin have done more for me than I could have asked for and have helped me take that crucial step that many young writers are dying to make upon college graduation.
I’ve had friends and family compliment me on my stories. My grandparents, God bless them, receive a copy of each issue in upstate New York, and to this day, cut out each article of mine, adding to the collection — something I lost the patience for after two months.
But it’s when those I haven’t met before approach me to thanks me or compliment me on articles I’ve written. Sam’s right: It forces you to look at where you are and what you have. And as egotistical as all this may sound, keep in mind it would never have been able to experience any of this if it weren’t for Darin McCann and Susan Lyons.
I’m able to make a difference in other people’s lives because they made a difference in mine.
Developing something as successful as this newspaper, gathering the response and support from all of the readers and advertisers as it has and keeping those connections is much more than anything I have witnessed before.
For a weekly newspaper to run and grow the way it has is truly an inspirational and an impressive achievement. Congratulations to Susan and Darin and everyone who has made a difference here at Coastal Point. Here’s to 200 issues, and many more to come.