Dan's Papers and the Lincoln Eagle, a Newspaper Trend is Again Proven

While Lil did volunteer work at UCCC for a play yesterday evening I sat on my deck feeling a bit guilty. Until, that is, I dove into a book by Dan Rattiner, the title is In the Hamptons. It covers Dan’s experiences building up Dan’s Papers in the playground of the rich and powerful. What I loved about the book was the time period when as a kid I summered in my folks’ simple house at the end of Mako Lane. Well before glitz and glam was locked into the equation. Many years after I went back out to the Hamptons for a year and a half to work in some restaurants and relive my younger beach days, I even got to know Dan a bit.

More interesting than the book’s glimpses into the famous was Dan’s free paper idea. Dan’s Papers might have been the first free or give away paper in the US. In the beginning Dan had a tough time getting advertisers because the concept of a free paper just wasn’t fathomable. Time proved Dan spot on and the paper has spread and grown beyond belief. It made me think about our local give away, the Lincoln Eagle and its success over the last year. Advertisers are lining up and everywhere I go people ask when the new issue is coming; I do a travel column in the paper. While some longtime sold papers are cutting staff and columns and reprinting AP stories, the LE is concentrating on the people that live and visit the area. Straight news is so easily accessed online and on TV anymore. I am not sure if Dan realizes it but his vision has spread and so has the circulation and reach of the Lincoln Eagle.