Halfway through The Coast's 25th anniversary year, with six months to go until birthday number 26 in June, I can only look back in awe. The Coast has always been a small business that, thanks to the hard work and outsize ambitions of its talented staff and freelancers, has a big influence. It was true in 1993, when we wanted to be a Halifax version of New York's Village Voice. And it's true in 2018, the year the Voice shut down.
Today the people behind The Coast work in an existential paradox: Journalism is at once more difficult to sustain as a business and more vital to public life than ever before. Giving up would be understandable, but for my colleagues it's unthinkable. Thank you to everyone who makes up Team Coast—the production peeps, designers, photographers, writers, sales reps, editors, managers, enforcers, event staff, distributors, artists, full-timers, part-timers, volunteers and interns—for continuing to kick ass this year.
Celebrating 25 years adds an extra layer of complexity to things. What should we do? How do we do it? Does anybody except us even care?
I'm happy to report the answer to that last question is a firm "yes." Ever since the birthday proper in June, I've been receiving messages of congratulations and thanks and appreciation. It's been an edifying, sometimes overwhelming, outpouring of goodwill that could provide The Coast existential confidence for 25 more years.
As for what and how, let me draw your attention to two projects in particular. The 25 for 25 podcast is an engaging history of Halifax as The Coast sees it, and hosts/creators/Coast editors Jacob Boon and Tara Thorne worked tirelessly to make it a reality. And Love The Way We Bitch/Love is a hard-cover book, spearheaded by Coast alumnus Stephanie Domet and co-founder Christine Oreskovich, that distills 18,000 submissions to The Coast's annals of hope and frustration into a funny, poignant, breezy read. With these amazing, swear-filled offshoots, The Coast becomes a true multimedia media organization, a sign of growing up after 25 years, if not quite growing old.
Send your messages of congratulations and thanks and appreciation to [email protected].