Celebrating Five Years And No Lawsuits

Okay, maybe one lawsuit.

Here I am again, sitting at my desk, scribbling out my Publisher’s Note at the last minute, marveling at the fact the MODE Weekly celebrates it’s fifth anniversary tomorrow. It was July 5th, 1996 when we launched the first issue, but it feels like it was yesterday. I’ve written 85 letters to you my readers, and designed as many covers, and believe it or not, I remeber every single one. (Who will call or e-mail first?)

The most notable appear in the center spread of this issue, and continue to inspire us to bring you, our readers, the news, opinion, and entertainment you deserve. If you missed any of them, you should go online to MODEweekly.com and check them out. Here’s a few thoughts that may enlighten you as to our motivation in publishing MODE Weekly.

The inaugural issue, then called MODE Weekly (Formerly MODE Magazine), (when we were monthly), had a beautiful photo of the Harrisburg skyline with the number 267 floating above it. The number signified the City of Harrisburg’s ranking on a “top 300 U.S. cities to live in” list as published by Money magazine. What made us choose such a topic for our first cover was the fact that Money had only visited the top ten and bottom five cities before compiling this list. The rest of the ranking was done using outdated census data and random opinion. How ridiculous was that? After I read that issue of Money, all I could think was “I just moved here because this is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen... what kind of insensitive jerks are these people?” So, I sent a letter to their publisher, which went unpublished and unanswered, of course.

Our two April Fools issues, “Secret Tunnels Found Under Harrisburg” and “City Island Sold To HersheyPark” were “works of genius”, our fair Mayor once told me. While on the topic, he said, “I can’t believe how many people fell for it hook, line, and sinker... even the second time!” But we could not have done it without the Mayor’s participation. Both issues are a testament to Harrisburg’s sense of humor. I’ll never forget when the “Secret Tunnels” issue came out they were disappearing like hot cakes. So many people were asking for them, one of the local newsstands actually put a price sticker over our “FREE” line, and started selling them. And when the “City Island Sold” issue hit the streets, the Mayor’s Office was inundated with calls from contractors who wanted to bid on the HersheyPark construction. (Tsk, tsk, tsk. Always read the last paragraph.)

It makes you wonder how much fun one publication can actually have.

Then, of course, there’s the 50s issue. This was the issue that we completely made over to appear as though it was printed in 1957. We used special newsprint paper that was already yellowed. We redesigned every ad using fonts, graphics and photography from the 50s. All of the articles, especially “How To Build A Bomb Shelter”, were based on 50s topics. The One-Tank Getaway was to Hershey, in 1957. We went to the Dauphin County Historical Society and sifted through hundreds of historical photos to build our MODE@Large for that issue. We even borrowed period outfits from Classic Rags and a 1957 convertible to shoot our cover in front of the West Shore Theater, who was kind enough to put the 1957 Academy Award Winner on the marquee for our shoot.

Finally, our most recent triumph was the MODE Weekly Music Guide, which featured hundreds of local performers and hundreds of live music venues. It was possibly the most research and information crunching we’ve ever done for one issue.

There are other great milestones in out five year history, but I’ll save those stories for the next issue, which will be our official Fifth Anniversary Celebration issue.

Till then, enjoy.


Scot Giambalvo