Borough President Claire Shulman

Dear Friends:

This edition marks the First Anniversary of the PRESS of Southeast Queens.

It is hard to believe that since its debut just a year ago, this paper has already become a "must read" for residents of this community. Each week, the PRESS
is chock full of information, special events and news about what is happening in your neighhorhood. Always helpful and dependable, the paper is a great reference and resource guide.

On behalf of all our residents, especially those of Southeast Queens, I extend sincere best wishes to the publisher and entire staff of the PRESS and wish them continued success and prosperity.

Mayor Rudy Giuliani

Dear Readers:

It is with great pleasure that I congratulate the PRESS of Southeast Queens on its first successful year of publication.

The recently released Census 2000 results showed
that Queens exceeded the two million mark for the
first time and possesses the most diverse population
in the city. Fortunately, The PRESS is now here to serve the booming borough of Queens – the face of our city in the future.

The readership of Southeast Queens – Jamaica, St. Albans, Hollis, Cambria Heights, Laurelton, Rosedale, and South Ozone Park – is now enjoying a free weekly paper that provides superlative community news, features, commentary, and investigative pieces similar to those that have won awards for The PRESS’ sister paper, the Queens Tribune.

My warmest congratulations to The PRESS on its first anniversary, and best wishes for continued success.

Reverend Floyd Flake

Congratulations to the Press of Southeast Queens on your First Anniversary.

You have established yourself as a primary proponent of the initiatives that are shaping the future of the Southeast Queens Community. It is great that the Press is positioned to grow with the tremendous developments that are redefining the community.

As Southeast Queens continues to emerge from a recent history of deterioration, it is my hope that the PRESS of Southeast Queens will continue to be the partner who reports the good news of its revival.

For 30 years, the Queens Tribune has chronicled the laughter and tears, the challenges and the chores that moved and made one of the most fascinating places on earth . . . but something was missing.

There was a vibrant, healthy, and complex middle class set of neighborhoods in the Southeast corner of Queens that the Tribune didn’t serve well and we set ourselves a challenge. We wanted to take what we had learned over 30 years about community journalism and activism and people and Queens life and create something new, something exciting, and something that would speak to and for you.

But it isn’t easy giving birth to a new newspaper. Once the daydreaming stuff is done – like inventing the feature sections, styling the type, shaping a mission, and getting the Rev. Floyd Flake and Gary Anthony Ramsay on board – there comes the tough stuff. The first real hurdle was our name.

If you think baby names are hard, try naming a newspaper! Everyone had a list, everyone changed their list, everyone had their list shot down . . . and finally, it came to us. The Press . . . that was what we wanted to be. We wanted to be a solid voice reporting the news, a structured story teller, an advocate on the streets and in our type – we wanted to capture under one cover everything that is best about those people we call "The PRESS."

Name in hand and front page printed, we charged out into the neighborhoods of St. Albans and Hollis, asking you to read all about it. We sat in on the school board meetings in Laurelton. We treaded on toxic waste sites in Jamaica. We smiled with the people cutting the ribbons, shouted out in anger as scandal rocked one of our school boards, and bowed our heads to pray with the faithful for a better today and tomorrow.

A year later, what we’ve learned about Southeast Queens is that we have a lot more to learn . . . and we’re looking forward to it. What The PRESS has accomplished so far is just a baby newspaper step on the long road we look forward to writing down and walking down with you.

We’ve also learned that there are a lot of people in Southeast Queens who are only used to getting "bad press," and are leery when The PRESS calls. Covering only the bad stuff as it makes headlines and then walking away is not community journalism . . . it’s not good journalism . . . and it’s not what we do or will ever do. We’re here in Southeast Queens for the long haul . . . the good, the beautiful, the tough, the ugly, the challenging, the steady road and the rocky one, for as long as this paper shall live.

Celebrate with us our baby’s first birthday, join us in shaping and chronicling the life of Southeast Queens, and let us grow and learn together.