In response.

Like any business, we here at Connect Statesboro have competitors. That’s perfectly fine with us – we all grew up working in environments where having someone breathing down your neck is par for the course.

Unfortunately, some people don’t like competition. They’re threatened by it. One of our competitors’ publishers has written some unkind, untrue and unprovoked things about Connect Statesboro. In a phone conversation, he asked me to talk about him.

I won’t write his name, or his publication’s in these pages. Ever. In fact, this very post is the only time that I’ll even acknowledge this competitor exists.

The other guys don’t have that problem. They’ve written about us several times, because we scare ‘em to death.

It must be the fact that after four years of a free ride of playing at publishing a bi-weekly paper, local people (GSU graduates, even!) with proven skill and writing credentials decided to do something they weren’t – serve the entire Statesboro entertainment community, not just the university, without being self-indulgent or pretentious. Connect Statesboro’s an outgrowth of the immensely successful entertainment page that ran for years in the Statesboro Herald.

In retrospect, we should thank the competition for the free advertising. They’re used to giving away free ad space, though, since a combination of that and restrictive contracts seem to be how they keep several of their long-time advertisers from jumping ship. Take a look at one of their issues. They seem awfully preoccupied with their advertisers, don’t they?

We don’t do the give-away thing at Connect (except for online classifieds). Our advertisers pay us for space because they believe in what we’re doing and know we have legions of readers, not because we give them a free ad. We’re here for the readers, and our advertisers recognize that.

Here’s the quick defense to some of their barbs: first, yeah, we tried to hire a single one of their writers. She’s very talented, and when she explained that her current position offered more opportunities I wished her the best of luck and told her I didn’t blame her for staying.

In response to the “copying” comments, we’re a print publication. There are going to be a few similarities, but we don’t look to papers in our own town for pointers. It seems a little strange, though, that after our stellar “Carla Connect” started, a poorly-written romance advice column appeared in their paper.

As far as being “corporate-owned?” Yup, we are. And our giant, scary corporate staff is made up of one full-time person, one part-time person, four people who donate a couple of hours a week, a part-time intern and (as of today) three freelance writers. One of those people – and it’s not me - is over thirty. Truly, we have unlimited resources with which to crush lesser publications.

And lay off the sunglasses. It was bright outside that day, and it’s important to protect your eyes from UV rays. No one “threw” them on me – I own ‘em.

To tell the truth, I’d probably have written something about the competition earlier in Connect’s run (our first birthday is coming up in September), but I’ve been entirely too busy.

Their publisher’s got plenty of time to kick back in his cushy Macon office and hurl barbs down at me in my little gray Statesboro cubicle. He must be spending plenty of time during his day thinking up witty things to write, since he’s obviously not spending much time making sure the spelling, grammar, story selection and layout of his publications is up to professional standards.

But that’s not really my problem is it? Or yours. As readers, I don’t expect you to care about what their publisher thinks about little old me, or vice versa. I’m just thrilled that reader support has seen Connect Statesboro grow into something wonderful over the past year. Neither publication owns the readers, advertisers or Statesboro itself, and you’ll make your own decisions as to who to read.

So I wish our competitors the best of luck with their burgeoning publishing empire centered out of Macon. Maybe there’s enough room in the Statesboro community for our paper and theirs. If not, they’ve got two other cities to publish in. I'm only concerned with Bulloch County, where I make my home.

In the meantime, my staff and I have a magazine to put together, and I’ve already wasted too much time writing about the other guy.