For a little over a year, I’ve been lucky enough to be at the helm of the award-winning Republic-Times website.

Though I’ve worked as a columnist for the Republic-Times since 2011, when I was offered to take control of the website and work in the actual office, it was the first time I experienced the inner-workings of the print news industry.

Due to modern technological luxuries such as social media and a 24-7 cable news cycle, younger generations are quickly becoming accustomed to receiving their news instantly, most of the time, while they’re holding a smart phone in their hand.

Because of that, traditional news outlets like network TV news and especially the newspaper industry, are taking hits in subscribers and viewership, which equals less ad dollars – which ultimately leads to closing down shop.

But throughout the past year, I’ve learned that not all newspapers are created equally.

That’s especially true for the Republic-Times. There’s a small, yet highly dedicated team of people behind our weekly paper that puts a tremendous effort into making it happen every single week with no sacrifices in quality.

Look, this is Monroe County – it’s not exactly New York City as far as eventful news days, but even when there isn’t much news, the editor receives a chance to feature small businesses in the county and other community feel-good stories that our readers absolutely love.

Not all papers have the ability to do that – and I think that’s exactly why small-town, rural papers like the Republic-Times will never go out of style. There will always be a place for weekly newspapers who put in the extra effort to produce a high quality publication each and every week.

Though I’ll continue to write a bi-weekly column for the Republic-Times, I’ve moved on to a full-time position with an online news organization.

But I wanted to use this column space today to thank each and every employee at the Republic-Times for taking me in like family and making me feel so welcome.

We had such a great time together and I’ll miss working with every single one of you. Sure, we all had our ups and downs, but at the end of most days, laughter filled the office and we went home with a smile on our face.

Keep up the great work and I will forever remember my time working in the office, Batman tree and all.