NO OTHER season generates as many clichés as the end of the year. Good wishes multiply and we realize that despite our best intentions, we are repeating the same hackneyed phrases as everyone else.
Perhaps the reason year-end gratitude loses its lustre is because there is only one way to express it: directly, using the language that so many have used before. Thank you so much. For trusting us. For reading us. For using us as your source of countrywide information.
It has been a challenging year for the Slovak media. New publications have emerged and some papers have disappeared. Some publications have reached readers' hearts and minds while at the same time finding advertising sponsors. Others have done one or the other, or neither.
It was a challenging year for The Slovak Spectator. We celebrated our 10th birthday in 2005, reaching an age when a paper can no longer justify having childhood ailments.
It felt like walking a tightrope trying to balance quality, which is our top priority, and handling the financial demands of the business, which pushes us to come up with unprecedented ways to save funds. Creativity is paramount!
We were once again proud to serve as a major source of information for the diplomatic community and foreign investors who rely on the paper to complement their knowledge of the country. We are also proud to become even more popular among Slovak students, a growing number of them looking to practise their English. They feel The Slovak Spectator gives them a good read.
Every single Thursday, the day we send the paper to the printing house, we wonder what we could have done differently, or whether the selection of the news really matches the needs of our demographic. Have we satisfied the demands of our readers?
One way we have reached out to you is to give our paper a new look, complemented by several new features and columns reflecting the changes and progress the paper has made since its first issue in March 1995. Next year we hope to dress our special publications in an updated outfit that befits their growing sophistication as well.
Thank you again for considering the Spectator your newspaper, and for the trust you grant us each and every time you read our pages, particularly in times like these, when so many publications compete for your precious time and interest.
The Slovak Spectator team
