Editorial: On our birthday, we celebrate our past and look forward to many more years

Editor's note: This editorial originally appeared in The Sentinel on March 23, 2024, the newspaper's 225th birthday. There was a time when age had its advantages. People looked up to their elders, believing them to have wise advice and experience to impart. If nothing else, they were at least respected for having survived so long. Over the past 25 years or so, however, there seems to have been a surge in the celebration of youth in our culture. Sure, youth is great, even if — as they say — it's wasted on the young. But age has its advantages. There was a time when The Sentinel was young and ambitious. We look to the words of one John Prentiss, upon the occasion of the first edition of his "Newhampshire Sentinel" on March 23, 1799: "… nothing shall be wanting … to render it a valuable museum of intelligence and rational entertainment." Prentiss made some pretty big claims about his new venture in that first edition: "The farmer, for the trifling sum of 150 cents is able to discourse upon the political concerns of his country, and hold a contest with the greatest statesman." He also vowed to make its pages available to those with something of public value to say and to present readers with an impartial history of the politics of the world. These are not idle promises; even today, The Sentinel strives to maintain its history of providing unbiased news coverage while affording the public an opportunity to be heard on matters of public import. And these are as important goals as they were 225 years ago — indeed, quite possibly of more importance than ever, given the political and cultural times in which we now live. Careful readers, and we have many, will have taken note of the date: March 23, 1799, was exactly 225 years ago. And so it was The Sentinel — the fifth-oldest newspaper published continuously under the same name in the United States and New Hampshire's oldest such publication — was born. Happy birthday to us! We're proud of our lineage and longevity. How remarkable is it for a business to last 225 years? In the region, save a handful of churches, there are no other enterprises as old. Well, there is one claimant: Chase's Mill in East Alstead, laudably restored to use in 2020, advertises itself as dating back to 1767. But that's more a shoutout to the fact that there was a mill on that spot at that point; as the mill's website notes, several different mill enterprises have come and gone through the years, with wide gaps between. Not so for us, which is perhaps more than anything a testament to the community, its thirst for knowledge and public connection and its ongoing support. The Sentinel has survived through war and peace, economic booms and busts, man-made triumphs and natural disasters. And through it all, we've tried to keep to the goals of John Prentiss: to bring the historic happenings of the region and the world to Monadnock Region readers, farmers and merchants and others alike; to give those same readers a voice; and to do so in ways both informative and entertaining. Now, 225 years after that first printed page was struck off a hand-operated press, much has changed. The challenges ahead include evolving technology and mores. The Sentinel has survived the advent of radio, television and the Internet. Not without scars, but still here nonetheless. To do so — particularly during this past 25 years — has meant adapting technologically to also serve readers on digital platforms, while keeping in sight our continuing goal of being the foremost provider of news and information to the region's residents and a trusted source and civic partner to the communities we serve. That's meant, over the years, changing the times and frequency of publication and the means of delivering news and information; creating the first website (SentinelSource.com) of any Granite State newspaper; and, more recently, introducing Mobile alerts, social media pages, the Sentinel app and digital newsletters. We don't know what the future will bring. We're no longer young, but the ambition remains. We are confident that Monadnock Region residents will always have a need for the information that helps them navigate life, and that in some form, The Sentinel will be striving to serve that need as we celebrate our 250th birthday 25 years from now.