Beachcombing

Happy 20th Anniversary to us! In July 2000 we were given the opportunity to become publishers of the Los Altos Neighbor newspaper by John McNaughton, who decided to get a real job as field deputy for Dennis Carroll, the new councilman for the 4th District.

The idea of becoming a newspaper publisher seemed easy enough, given that Beeler & Associates had already published more than 100 newsletters for several corporate clients in the prior 22 years.

The timing was good, since we recently completed work on the City of Long Beach Census 2000 project. It was a year-long effort to get everyone’s participation in the Census, especially minority Cambodian and Latino residents who inherently did not trust anything involving the government.

So we promptly hired our CSUF intern, Liz Pose, to be the editor under Executive Editor (B&A VP) Stacey Francis and jacked up the circulation to 35,000, enough to cover East Long Beach. Less than a year later we changed the name to Beachcomber, reflecting the broader eastside distribution.

Shortly thereafter we benefitted from the advertising sales skills of John Tosdal, who – working part time – took our small publication to as many as 32 pages before the 2008 recession and the trend toward internet advertising that saw newspapers’ page counts drop.

Liz and Stacey left for greener pastures during the recession, as did John, who came back to us in recent years upon retiring from his fulltime job with a national coffee company.

Along the way we’ve had numerous writers, columnists, ad representatives and more than 100 interns from CSULB, LBCC, CSUDH and CSUF – all of whom have made this a very fun adventure.

If you look at the masthead on the right side of this page you’ll notice at the very bottom that I’ve decided to follow in the footsteps of LB Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Randy Gordon and announce my “retirement” far in advance: July 4, 2025. So that gives me five years to find someone who is ready for a career change by taking over the duties of “sandbox monitor,” as I like to call it.

I’ll never fully retire until they cart me away in a pine box. I’d just like to be free from production deadlines with more play time for my wife and I – as long as it doesn’t involve sitting in the middle seat of an airplane, exposure to cruise ship viruses or wearing a face mask.

Our online poll asked readers how they felt about renaming Wilson High School because that president was supposedly “racist,” like so many other millions in that generation. The “no” vote was 86%, “yes” was 12% and “undecided” was 2%.

Our current poll asks whether Mayor Garcia should be recalled. So far the “yes” vote is 63% and the “no” vote is 38%. What’s your opinion? Go to www.beachcomber.news and vote at the bottom of the front page.

Humor time:
 

• People keep asking, “Is coronavirus really that serious?”  Listen up! Casinos and churches are closed. When heaven and hell agree on the same thing, it’s probably pretty serious.
• Shout out to all the parents who never taught their kids respect and now they’re stuck at home with the little darlings.
• The longer this goes on, the harder it will be to return to a society where pants and bras are required.
• Cops these days will be like…”Come out with your hands washed!”

publisher@beachcomber.news