Lifelong subscribers and newspaper have strong ties

As we finish our celebration of the 120th year of the Dayton Daily News, earlier this summer I asked our lifelong subscribers to tell us their stories about what the paper has meant to them.

More than 300 subscribers wrote to us with powerful stories about how the Dayton Daily News has been a part of their lives for decades. The letters were beautiful.

“This newspaper informed me of the Blizzard of ’78 – I lived it – and the obituary of a friend who died in that Blizzard (a trucker) was in that paper,” wrote Susan Edwards, a subscriber from Dayton since 1978. “Over the years so many important events – 9/11, Katrina, the Cubs victory (finally!), the tornadoes of May 2019 and as I write this more than likely the shootings of Aug. 4th, 2019.”

Betty Nadolsky of West Carrollton has been reading since her parents took the paper in the 1930s.

“The Dayton Daily News is a main information item in our home informing us and keeping us in the know of news of our community, state and nation,” she wrote.

One writer included clips we’d written of him over the decades. Many thanked our writers - past and present - for being a part of their daily lives. Many said they have moved their daily habit into the digital age, reading each edition on their iPads and tablets.

Beginning today and for the next 30 days you will see the stories of many of these subscribers. The first story - telling of Molly Campbell of Centerville, who credits the Dayton Daily News for helping instill a love of reading and writing in her family - appears on B1 of today’s paper.

Later this month we will be releasing details about new and better ways for our subscribers to reach us. And we’re preparing an open house in which our longest subscribers will be asked to come it, meet with our staff, and hear directly from us how much we appreciate their years of support.

Thank you for reading the Dayton Daily News.

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