About four and one-half years ago I coined a phrase for something that has existed for generations. For me the phrase fit the moment and captured a feeling and an attitude that guides so many of us in this business. I called it the “brotherhood of community newspapering.”

Perhaps my phrase sounds a bit contrived, but when considered against generations of community newspaper people, it seems to take hold and defines a special niche in journalism.

Fitting the moment in coining the phrase had to do with one very special act. That act made me spend considerable time thinking about this thing I finally decided to call the “brotherhood.” But that act in that “moment” was so representative of the relationships between community newspaper people.

Everyone who has spent more than a couple of years in this segment of newspapering understands and accepts certain givens.

First of all, it’s hard work. There is never quite enough help. You become a generalist of necessity and a perfectionist in the great drive to publish the very best product you can — every time you publish. Early on you recognize the wonderful opportunity and capacity to make a difference in your small corner of the world.

Upon learning all of this about yourself and about the journalistic niche you have carved for yourself, you recognize that others of the species must exist. You learn that there are bound to be other ideas and methods for solving problems peculiar to community publishing.

That’s when you discover that those of your kind frequently gather in groups and dissect every aspect of this business of community newspapering. You find there are more ways to save and make money. New, better ways of doing your job are revealed to you. And, you have fun learning all these things

There’s another discovery that isn’t long in coming — these other community newspaper people are very much like you. They think a great deal like you do and they care about the same things you care about.

Early in the community newspaper business, many of us give up on the idea of lengthy vacations. Visits with our fellow community newspaper types at regional and state conventions become important to our professional lives as well as a concurrent opportunity for rest and relaxation. Soon, you regard such gatherings as a vacation as well as an opportunity to gain new twists on old ideas.

In a matter of a few short months and years, you’ve developed close relationships with fellow community newspaper people. Due to the hard and hectic schedule most of us keep, three or four of those short convention-vacations a year are all we get.

But, most importantly, in those friendly but intense gatherings, you begin to develop relationships that, even though you just see each other for short stretches, you can begin a thought at one meeting and one of your friends can finish it at the next.

Then you know it has become fraternal.

You can see people in your town day after day and be friends but they will never understand you and the very different tick of your clock nearly as well as one of your community newspapering brotherhood members can in only a few short visits a year.

This past year as president of the Texas Press Association has been the greatest honor of my newspaper career. It has also been a fun 12 months in which I’ve had many times more than the normal “vacations.” There have been so many opportunities to get better acquainted with old friends and to make scores of new ones.

Throughout my more than a half century in this great business, through the special bonds created, through the ideals solidified by longtime associations and through the times of personal trials — brothers and sisters old and new have given deep meaning to the “brotherhood of community newspapering.”

Thank you for a great year.