It’s hard to believe that the Insider is 10 years old.
The first edition was published way back on Oct. 24, 2006, so if you want to get technical, on the date of this publication, it’s 10 years old and one day.
And boy oh boy has it been one heck of a ride. It started as an idea from former Monitor publisher and original Insider Mark Travis. Other news organizations were having success with free publications and since Concord was (and is) so happening, the powers that be thought a new weekly was the way to go.
So Travis teamed with other proud Insider parent Danielle Kronk Barrick, who was just Danielle Kronk at the time, to create the very first one. Travis wanted to do a more traditional weekly, while Barrick had the idea of being sassy and fun, something people were going to read.
Luckily for us – and all of you – Barrick’s idea won out.
And over the last decade, there have been changes to the staff (some of whom you’ll hear from shortly), a long list of great story and issue ideas and plenty of fun in the old Insider pod.
So how do we wrap it all up in a neat little package for you – we’re not quite sure yet, but here’s our best shot.
The first issue had a tale of the tape between Concord and Keene, which is kind of funny considering the Insider duo is now made up of one Concordian and a resident of Keene. There was lots of Halloween fun, a close look at police and fire department activity and a downtown hunt.
That downtown hunt has morphed into semi-annual scavenger hunts, many Halloween editions have required the newest Insider to play dress-up in the trendiest costumes and maybe, just maybe, we’ll pick on another New Hampshire city in the near future.
Concord has been introduced to some serious hunks and hunkettes, the Food Snob and the Revelator. There was also the creation of the Instigator, and at one point there were advice columns.
The biggest and smallest events in Concord have been highlighted, we’ve made fun of ourselves and each other, and we even expanded our coverage to include Bow.
We’ve been there to see the creation of a heart-shaped pizza, sent a singing Valentine to City Manager Tom Aspell and even witnessed a man marry himself.
While we’ve crossed a lot of ideas off our list, we never seem to have a hard time coming up with more. That’s because this little city of ours always has something good going on. But feel free to send us an email at news@theconcordinsider.com if you have an idea. We always like other people doing our work for us.
And if anyone wants to throw us a birthday party, we’re open to that, too. We love cake and balloons.
But all this reminiscing about the first issue got us thinking: What was happening in the world around us way back in 2006?
So we figured using this trusty thing we like to call Google, we embarked on a search for all things 2006.
The World
The United States population reaches 300 million.
The one billionth song is purchased from iTunes.
Google purchases YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock.
Pluto is downgraded from a planet to a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union.
Pop culture
The week of the first Insider, The Prestige, a movie about two stage magicians who engage in a competitive one-upsmanship, is the top movie at the box office.
Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” is in its last week of a seven-week run as the top Billboard 100 song.
Bob Barker announces that he will be retiring from his hosting duties for The Price Is Right.
Other tidbits
Bill Gates is the richest person in the world at $50 billion. (He’s worth $75 billion today.)
Tim gets his first writing job.
Jon graduates from high school.
On yeah, and there was a pretty crazy flood in Concord.
