Our BIG Announcement is HERE!

You, our subscribers, are receiving this email because we have an exciting announcement.

News of Davidson, your hometown source of news and information, has undergone an important redesign, based on reader surveys about what you would like to see, and how you would like to see it.

We present this new site to you as we enter our tenth year. This is the beginning of the ways in which we will celebrate our anniversary with you over the coming months.

This grand experiment as a nonprofit source of news began over nine years ago. Back then, a few interested people met for months to discuss the possibilities. Our goal as your source of community news and information has always been to provide you with the best source of material from myriad sources across our community.

We specifically want to serve as an online "megaphone" for our local nonprofits and our local businesses. Both can send us material, and we will publish it free of charge.

We received our 501(c)3 in April 2016. Then we beta tested the site for a year before we took it live on September 15, 2017.

All these years later, we have been faithful to our original concept of having no ads, no pop-ups, and no paid staff, writers, historians, or poets. But do not interpret that kind of volunteerism as being anything other than professional. The editorial board and columnists have hundreds of combined years of work in the fields of writing, editing, researching, and photography, which they bring with devotion to you.

We began by telling our readers about things happening over the weekend in Davidson. Our readers responded with "tell us about what's going on the rest of the week, too." Thus, our "Ready, Set, This Week in Davidson" was born.

While our site is up and online 24/7, we send out two weekly emails -- one on Wednesday, and the other on Friday.

Several years ago, we also saw the need to offer a place for our neighbors to publish obituaries for their family members and loved ones. Most importantly, we don't limit their words or photos. We allow family members to honor their loved ones in a manner they deem appropriate. And we do not charge for anything.

We believe this new site, which we offer to you after months of design work, is cleaner, fresher, and more mobile-friendly. Our designer, Kathy Davis, listened carefully to our ideas and translated them into a site that is both attractive and easy to navigate. Kathy brings years of experience in graphic design and website development, along with a knack for turning a client’s ideas and needs into a website that works for both its audience and the people who maintain it. To see more of her work, visit IdeaSwirl.com.

Thank you, dear readers, for being with us on this journey. We have learned much about our community and the people who call it home, and we are excited to look ahead to the next ten years of learning and growing together.

Editors' Note: We are NOT perfect. Unlike our ability to spend months beta testing the original site, things are different when you already have a website. As a result there will be small glitches as we make this transition. If you run across something that we haven't fixed in the next couple days, don't hesitate to let us know.