That’s correct, the paper you are reading today is destined to become a classic. Well, at least to us. That’s because it’s the last of our twice-a-month editions of The Business Times.

This last edition of the twice-a-month Business Times you are holding came into being as the result over a decade of lessons learned, successes, failures and our printing of dozens of other publications and going off in several other directions besides printing what we do best: Which, ironically took us a long time to realize was printing a paper.

And it has served us unbelievably well for the past dozen years or so to this day.

That isn’t to say we didn’t learn more lessons, have successes and survive failures since we found our sweet spot. We have. But at least we didn’t go off on publishing tangents the way we used to and lose sight of what we’re best at.

Although, we will take credit for dozens of inserts which were highly successful — because we finally got smart enough to create an extra product that kept us focused on The Business Times, not in dozens of crazy directions.

In the end, however, the little paper that could became the sole focus of our efforts, and that worked for more than 12 years, into the paper you are reading today.

Over those years, the Business Times became as much of a turn-key operation as any newspaper could become. That winning formula survived getting your publisher’s kids through school (well, one is a senior this year, so missed by one semester) and 25-year editor to retirement among countless other accomplishments. But like all too many good things, this version of the Business Times must come to an end.

But in this case, a very happy ending starts an exciting new beginning. Starting Jan. 8, 2025, the Business Times becomes a weekly publication.

Sure, Phil Castle’s retirement had something to do with the change, just like planning for the publisher’s retirement down the road does, just as changes in our industry do. But something more important does as well. And that’s a desire to bring to the citizens of Western Colorado the news.

While we will always look at news stories through the lens of business — after all, that’s where we made our bones — we just know there are so many more stories to tell. Stories about local institutions of government, about the community, about how what’s going on affects the people, about how policy and elections affect business and, of course, about what we have been known for doing for more than 30 years: writing stories on the great businesses and business people who make our area the best place to live in Colorado.

That’s because of the best news of all. The vast majority of what we have the privilege to cover will be good news. Sure, there will be difficult stories to report. But those are the stories we feel our readers need to know about. They’ll just be intertwined with even more stories our readers want to know about. When these are combined, you just end up with a darned-good newspaper, the kind of newspaper we intend to bring to Grand Junction and the surrounding areas.

So, please join us on our new adventure in covering even more Grand Junction, Grand Valley and Western Colorado news. Whether you have a story, are interested in quality, local stories or your business wants to reach folks through advertising who bring or are interested in those kinds of stories, reading, turning and enjoying the pages of the Business Times is for you.

After all, that’s why we’re doing it!

Merry Christmas and New Year’s blessing to all! See you on the flip side!