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It was 1959 when Earle Hightower published the first issue of The Gazette. It was four pages and delivered to 1,000 homes in Gaithersburg, or, as Earle recalls, "as many houses as we could find." He thought there would be growth in the Maryland communities surrounding Washington. He was right, of course.

The Gazette grew as well, and today publishes 20 editions serving more than 50 communities in Montgomery, Prince George's, Frederick and Carroll counties, with a combined circulation of about 550,000, plus a statewide Friday edition, The Gazette of Politics and Business.

In total, The Gazette reaches more than 40 percent of Maryland's households, and more than 1 million readers statewide.

The Gazette has for years tried to keep its mission simple:

Cover local news with first-rate journalism.

Practice community service.

Help local businesses grow through effective advertising.

Provide a positive, family-friendly work environment.

Manage our business in a sound financial manner.

The world has changed — mostly for the better, but not always. We have tried to change where it makes sense.

Our press, built less than two years ago, now provides every advertiser four-color printing at a very low cost. And the quality is superb.

On average about 300,000 unique visitors check out our Web site, www.gazette.net, where we now provide news and sports coverage every day, throughout the day, and create affordable web ads for our print advertisers.

With the cost of newsprint rising 28 percent in recent months, we have searched for a way to continue to reach the more than 1 million readers who count on us every week. We are unable and unwilling to pass much of these costs to our advertisers, other than the 2 percent to 4 percent rate increase scheduled for February 2009.

Instead, we asked our friend, national newspaper designer extraordinaire Neal Pattison, to help create a "new" format for The Gazette as we enter our 50th year. It sounds too good to be true, but the new design, which is a "broadsheet" in newspaper terms, allows us to provide advertisements that are slightly larger, the flexibility to provide more stories and photographs and save on newsprint.

Beginning Jan. 7th and Jan. 8th, you will receive your Gazette in this newly designed format. We hope this strategy makes sense to you, our readers, and that you know how very much we appreciate your trust as we continue to work to bring you news that matters in your lives, as well as to help our advertisers grow their businesses.

We welcome your feedback. Please let us know what you think. You can reach us at newformat@gazette.net.

Best wishes in the New Year,

James Mannarino

President and Publisher

The Gazette

Cliff Chiet

Publisher, The Gazette

Montgomery County