The End of an Era— The Silver Stage Retires

By Kathryn R. Burke, Publisher

Twenty-five years! A quarter-century. Hard to believe. But like the stagecoaches of yore, replaced by trains, trucks, and automobiles, it’s time for the San Juan Silver Stage to head for the museum. It’s been a great ride and our editorial content consistently outstanding. Except for a few bumps in the road, it’s also been an incredibly rewarding experience. We’ve enjoyed having you ride along with us and are grateful for your loyal support…but we’ve reached the end of the trail.

The Silver Stage started out in 1996, in Ouray, Colorado. My late husband coined the name—based on the historic Silver San Juans (history and heritage) and my focus on our “on stage” creative community providing arts and entertainment around the region. The publication began as a newspaper and morphed into a magazine along with six others published by San Juan Publishing group, Inc. (SJPG), our parent company. SJPG was ahead of its time—we saw the digital future coming, and developed related websites for our magazines.

In print and online, we were once the only trusted source for events around the Four Corners region, with emphasis closer to home, here in Western Colorado. Our Stage Events Calendar was a bible for those hunting for things to do. Now our time of publishing the region’s only comprehensive community calendar has come to an end. The combination of Covid and subsequent ramping up of social media has irrevocably changed the need for that service.

Today there are hundreds, make that thousands, of digital locations—if you want to take the time and know how and where to find them—that catalogue current events, by area or region, topic or interest, or just proximity to where you are or plan to be if traveling. It takes a bit of concentrated searching, and accuracy can be somewhat dubious—but it’s all out there…somewhere. You can find what’s happening, or did happen, or will happen on your own now, tapping into the myriad of websites and social media pages. Today, almost everybody, regardless of age or technical ability, relies on the Internet as their primary news source.

Remember the magazines in the doctors’ offices? Gone. Everybody is scrolling through their smartphone. Remember the printed newspaper delivered in the dark and perused with your morning coffee? Not in the driveway anymore. Instead of turning a paper page, you tap, click and scroll. For most of us, print has been replaced by digital format. We Google, Zoom, YouTube, Facebook, and log in with face-recognition (or hard-to-remember passwords). We shop online, order food, book our travel, balance our bank accounts, pay bills, and take free classes (and pay-per-view webinars) online—mostly from our phones (or a tablet, laptop, or desk computer if we need a bigger screen).

So, sadly (because I’ve really loved doing this), it’s time for the Stage to make its final run, another icon that will, hopefully, be remembered with love…or at least fondness. Although an archival version will still be accessible online, the San Juan Silver Stage as you’ve known it, will be permanently parked as a museum piece at the end of this issue, Holidays 2021. Please stop by for a visit at Silverstage.news and share in the memories.

Kathryn Burke, Publisher

San Juan Silver Stage, Lifestyles Publication. 1996 - 2021

Publisher: Kathryn R. Burke
Owned and operated by San Juan Publishing Group, Inc., PO Box 945, Montrose CO 81402
Online. Older issues: https://sanjuanpub.com/silver-stage. |. 2019-2021: /https://silverstage.news

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