BY Jack Criss
DBJ Executive Editor

As the end of the year quickly approaches and as we publish this December issue of the DBJ, I have been thinking a lot about what took place in my life during 2002. The holidays are always a great family time and this year Cindy and I will celebrate a very extra special Christmas as on December 23, our only daughter, Travis, will celebrate her first birthday. This time last year we were worried about what kind of Christmas the boys (Thomas 8, Jordan 6) would have since Cindy was actually due on December 25. As it turned out, Cindy was able to come home on December 24 and with her mother¹s help, the boys had a great Christmas.

For me, every Christmas is filled with memories of the past. When I was a child in Shelby, my grandparents, great uncle and aunt, my two sisters, my mother and father and maybe one or two distant relatives, would gather at our home on Christmas morning to open presents and then have a huge lunch. By the time I was 16, my mother and father had divorced, my grandparents were long gone, and I was living in that same old two-story house in Shelby by myself. For many years, the Christmas mornings I had known earlier were over. During that period, my close friend, Charles Landrum would spend Christmas together. We¹d eat ham sandwiches and head out to the woods to hunt. Almost every year now, Charles calls me and says, ³Well, Christmas is a few days away and I was just thinking about you...². Things can change in
an instant and as a teenager, I was introduced to significant change very quickly. I think that because of those times, I appreciate my life so much today. Having my own family now to celebrate not only Christmas, but each and every day of the year, is such a blessing from God.

Here at the DBJ,, we¹re going to celebrate Christmas by closing our offices from December 20 to January 2. While we are closed, we¹re going to be planning for 2003 and you will see some new things from the DBJ, in 2003 such as a few new departments, some business based seminars, and some other surprises that we¹ll announce in the January issue. In June of 2003, the DBJ, will turn five years old. Therefore, we are going all out in 2003 to take the paper to another level. And, apparently, the DBJ, is catching on not only in the Delta, but in other places. Almost 2,600 people in Memphis are subscribing to the DBJ, with no effort from us whatsoever to get Memphians to read our paper. In Jackson, for some reason, we have almost 1,700 paid subscribers. This tells me that people beyond the Mississippi Delta are very interested in what is taking place in the Delta¹s business community.

Four and half years have flown by here at the DBJ,. Now, 810,000 issues later, the DBJ, has come a long way. Of course, and absolutely, we could not have achieved all of this without the loyal support of our advertisers and readers. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing our success. As always, we want to hear from you. Tell us what you like or don¹t like about the paper so we can make it better.

We look forward to bringing you some exciting things in 2003. Have a great Christmas. DBJ

Scott Coopwood
Publisher