July Publisher’s Note: Four Years in Review

As we enter our fourth year at ColorsVA magazine, I have faced tremendous hurdles this year. Typically, during your fourth year of business, you start looking at the direction of the business. Is it on the right path? Could you do anything different? Is the product you are generating valuable to the consumer? Do you have the energy to keep elevating the product? All these questions I have asked myself this year. It has been a rollercoaster ride these past four years with extreme highs and extreme lows.

The important stories that we published last year ranged from mental health, to the impact of millennials on our community, to the diversity of media, to the holistic process of nutrition. These stories show the range of importance in our area and it shows the different perspectives that provide the uniqueness of our community.

This past year, we at ColorsVA wanted to improve our services and content beyond the magazine.  We relaunched our website, www.colorsvamag.com. The purpose of the new website is to provide a quality experience of our great stories online and for our readers to have a more interactive experience.  We used our website to expand our Scholar of the Month program so that we could hear the scholars’ thoughts on what motivates their successful academics.  We launched our very first podcast, Our Voices, Our Communities. This weekly roundtable of diverse individuals discussing the state of our community on a national, state and local level.  This program follows our continued mission of Celebrating our Similarities, Understanding Our Differences. We have received great feedback on the necessity of talking about the important issues of our communities.

As we enter our fifth year, we will continue to build the work here at ColorsVA magazine. We will do more investigative stories that influence our community, such as the story regarding the Evans Springs development in Roanoke found in this issue. This will be an ongoing series as we monitor the impact it has on the community and our neighbors.  We will develop more partnerships in media to expand our mission.

I truly want to thank all the staff, the writers, editor, photographers and administrative people at the organization. Thank you to our advertisers for supporting and understanding our mission. Without your fantastic work, our dream of promoting community unity would not happen.  Thank you so much!! Onward and upward!