By Julie Schenk, Assistant Editor

The Antigo Area Shopper has been through a lot of changes since first being acquired by Multi Media Channels LLC (MMC) almost 14 months ago, but change is good and it has brought us to where we stand today. We’re thrilled to present you with our new hybrid publication, the Antigo Times.

It’s a publication our entire staff is very excited to bring our readers. This great endeavor falls, largely, into the hands of a few impassioned folks at the Antigo Times office (also known as the Antigo Area Shopper office), but we’re also being led into the future by a group of high school students at Antigo High.   You read that right- high school students are helping to run the show.

Our intentions are simple: We hope to provide hyper-local news content via our daily website, www.AntigoTimes.com, with supplemental weekly print issues. It’s a hybrid publication, marrying the weekly shopper you’ve come to rely on with local and relevant news stories. It’s a format we think you’ll love.

While hundreds of print outlets across the nation are closing doors and laying off staff, we’re growing.

The students, all seniors from Lila Gallenberg’s AP English class, will be contributing stories told in video, photo and written formats as part of a scholarship program MMC has established. All four students plan to attend college next year, but all wanted to participate in showing off their hometown during their last year in high school.

While their news contributions will be showcasing some of the best Antigo has to offer, they also play a very important role in the future of the city. In a year, the Antigo Times will be much larger thanks in no small part to their efforts, which in turn means a better quality of local news for taxpayers and voters.

It’s a lot to place on their shoulders. We’ll be guiding them every step of the way- and certainly too will Mrs. Gallenberg- but they’ll need community support.

And so do we. A newspaper is nothing without a community to read it.

But since our staff can’t be everywhere all the time, we also ask you to submit your newsworthy events, news tips and photographs from around the area to our office. You can contact us via email at AntigoTimes@mmclocal.com or by phone at (715) 623-5081.

We expect that there could be changes in the future before we hit our mark. But our course is set- we’re dedicated to bringing Antigo residents the best in local news. It’s been an incredible journey so far, and we hope you’ll continue the ride with us.