Two years ago, we conducted a community survey to ask how you wanted to receive communications from local government. Your number one answer was Mt. Lebanon Magazine. Think about that for a moment. In a world where a social media follow means everything, you still value that which can be held in your hand. And this year, on Mt. Lebanon Magazine’s 40th birthday, we’d like to zoom in on some of this magazine’s accomplishments.
We have a storage vault filled with awards for our writing, including dozens of Golden Quill Awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania (we’re a finalist 11 times over for this year’s competition.)
We have strong community connections and routinely work hard to promote such entities and nonprofits as the Mt. Lebanon School District, Medical Rescue Team South Authority, The Historical Society of Mount Lebanon, Outreach Teen & Family Services and the Mt. Lebanon Partnership, our nonprofit community development corporation. During times when local media coverage for positive things is scarce, we are consistently celebrating the work of these organizations. Their success is Mt. Lebanon’s success.
We may have covered things like decorating trends, good ideas for holiday gifts and how to throw a great block party. But at the same time, we told you how your tax money was spent, we reminded you about potential changes in legislation that might affect you and we constantly fed you tips on how to keep yourself and your loved ones safe, based on the firsthand experience of our first responders. We showed you the diversity of your neighborhoods and let you know where there is a need to be filled in our community so you could help.
We published Mt. Lebanon Magazine continuously and on schedule during the pandemic, something most other magazines could not do. We still answer the phone when you call, we read and reply to your emails and we urge you to reach out whenever you have something to say.
If you contribute positively to life in Mt. Lebanon, whether you live here, work here or are a visitor, we want you to see yourself reflected in this magazine.
Learn more about our history and our future by reading Managing Editor Merle Jantz’s story [1].
I’d like to personally recognize our publisher, Municipal Manager Keith McGill, for giving us the tools to tell Mt. Lebanon’s story and for championing the peculiar notion of creating ethical journalism within the halls of government. I’m grateful to the Mt. Lebanon Commission for its continued support of reaching every resident in their homes and at their businesses and for knowing that print still has a key role in a first-rate communications program.
Our magazine team is amazing. Every person behind these pages truly loves the work. Individually, they are intelligent, quirky, kind, thoughtful and courageous. Together, they create art that is both visual and lyrical in the hopes of drawing you in to learn more. Our job is made easier by a municipal staff that makes us partners in everything they do, to ensure the information we publish is honest, accurate and timely.
Our advertisers are indispensable—they keep this magazine affordable by defraying most of our costs, which benefits our hardworking taxpayers. Our advertisers value your business and want to be part of your plans.
Most of all, I’d like to thank YOU, our readers, for spending your precious time reading to learn, for keeping our magazine in your homes, for sharing our stories online, for speaking with our writers and allowing your lives to be chronicled, for sending us your story ideas and for being critical of us … For it is in the difficult conversations that we emerge having created something of great value. We will never stop trying to improve and we thank you for taking the journey with us.
Laura Pace Lilley, Editor in Chief
lpace@mtlebanon.org [2] / 412-343-3552