14 Candles on Bay Weekly’s Birthday Cake

by Sandra Olivetti Martin

Fourteen years and 697 issues from the week the first Bay Weekly (nee New Bay Times) rolled through the presses on its way to you, we’re counting our blessings one by one:

1. One hybrid car helps us keep in step with the new Clean Car Act, now that staff writer Carrie Madren drives her new Honda Civic Hybrid to work each day (except Friday, when she telecommutes), averaging 50 miles to the gallon.

2. Two offices bring us closer to you and reduce our consumption of energy and contribution to pollution. Find our water-view office at 536 Deale Road in Deale, and our in-town office at 1202 West Street in Annapolis.

3. Three proofreaders inspect each word, name, fact, line and page of Bay Weekly to bring you a paper that won’t irritate you with error. So when you find the ones we missed (and there’s always one, as only God creates perfection), you’ve got sharper eyes than three Bay Weekly experts. Front-line proofers are Dick Wilson and Ben Miller, backed up by writer Carrie Madren and editor Sandra Olivetti Martin.

4. Four-legged staffer Moe, a 100-pound yellow Lab, replaces Bay Weekly’s Max as near clone and receptionist at our Deale office.

5. Five reviewers take you out to plays, movies and museums.

To learn which movies to see and which to skip, you’ve turned to Jonathan Parker since 1999. Mark Burns, who’s written for Bay Weekly since 1998, sits in for Parker now and again. The Cineman Syndicate fills in the gaps with short reviews.

Dick Wilson has advised you on community theater since 2002. He says he needs a break, so if you’re ready to replace him, give editor Sandra Olivetti Martin a call.

Our man on museums since 2006, Ben Miller comes to us from the National Park Service, where he was a curator of exhibits.

Steve Seymour, left, has delivered Bay Weekly throughout Calvert County for more than six years. Jim Lyles and his ride-along helper, Piper, have delivered papers to Southern Calvert since 2004. Newcomer Wally Everett joined the team last year and delivers throughout Southern Anne Arundel County.

6. Six drivers get Bay Weekly on the streets each week. From our Annapolis and Deale offices, they fan out from Severna Park to Solomons to some 500 distribution spots, so you’ll find us where and when you expect us.

Meet Anne Arundel drivers Ralph Camardo, Wally Everett, Jim (and Piper) Lyles and Cindy Thomas …

… and Calvert drivers Steve Seymour and James Walter.

Cindy Thomas has delivered Bay Weekly throughout Annapolis and beyond since summer of 2001. For more than three years, Jim Walter has handled a mammoth route including western and northern Anne Arundel. Ralph Camardo came aboard last year and delivers papers to Eastport and downtown Annapolis.

7. marriages Journalism must not be quite the all-consuming business it’s made out to be. Six couples have said We Do while one of the partners was with Bay Weekly: production manager Betsy Kehne and Mark Behuncik. Southern sales manager Marnie and Trey Morris; staff writer Carrie and Tyras Madren; and then-editorial assistant Aubree and Brad Stafford.

Director of sales and marketing Lisa Edler Knoll joined husband Alex Knoll, cofounder and general manager, in work as well as domestic partnership.

Former staffers fill out the number: sales rep Jim and Danielle Gibbons and writer Louis and Petra Llovio.

We’ve even got one to grow on as Classified Manager and Webmaster, Erin Huebschman plans her autumn wedding to Matt Sakalas.

8. 8 Days a Week, the best calendar on the Bay, gets you out and about in Chesapeake Country, with 11 weekly pages of places to go, music to hear and things to do, compiled for you each week by Carrie Madren and Erin Huebschman and laid out by Betsy Kehne.

9. Ads in nine sizes — from full pages down to our skeeter, 1⁄32 of a page — make Bay Weekly affordable for every purpose.

Classified ads bring even more versatility and affordability, because they’re sized exactly to need.

10. Ten Reasons to Advertise with Bay Weekly

1. 50,000+ loyal readers every week.

2. Distributed FREE at more than 500 businesses, shops and restaurants where our readers are out spending money.

3. The weekly newspaper in Anne Arundel and Calvert counties.

4. Proven results and effectiveness (call or ask your sales representative for testimonials from other advertisers).

5. Week-long shelf life ensures readers time to read the paper and see your ad.

6. Free ad design and typesetting by award-winning on-site graphic designers.

7. Fourteen years experience with many awards for stories and ads.

8. We dedicate ourselves to satisfying you.

9. Readers pick up Bay Weekly by choice each week, so your hard-earned advertising dollars aren’t wasted.

10. Bay Weekly readers are hungry for good news, information and entertainment, so your ad is always in good company.

11. 101 Ways to Have Fun Eleven writers are at work planning your summer fun, concocting this year’s Indispensable Guide to Summer on the Bay. You’ll find it tucked into your paper of May 24, so from Memorial Day to Labor Day you’ll never lack for good times. Nor will the kids, who get their own 101 Ways — along with the many Ways they’ll share with you.

12. Twelve horoscopes are cast each week by syndicated astrologist Rob Brezsny to help you bear the responsibility of fulfilling your destiny as lightly as if it were a tickling feather.

13. A baker’s dozen diversions entertain you on our pages, bringing you expertise, eloquence, enlightenment, irritation and occupation.

Unique to our pages are columnists Bill Burton (since 1993), Gary Pendleton’s Earth Journal (since 1999), Steve Carr’s Where We Live, (since 2002), Frank Gouin, The Bay Gardener (since 2005), Dennis Doyle, The Sporting Life (since 2006), Alice Snively’s Gunk-holin’ (since 2006) and new this year, Voyages of Discovery by Lynn Teo Simarski and Guy G. Guthridge.

Syndicated provocateurs Rob Brezsny of Free Will Astrology and Chuck Shepherd of News of the Weird have been with us since Day 1, April 22, 1993.

Earth Talk, syndicated by E-Magazine, joined us in 2004 to answer your questions on environmentally sound living.

Joining us this year to keep your mind healthily twisted are two puzzles, Xwords by Ben Tausig and a Sudoku.

14. Fourteen staffers — Fourteen is not only the number of candles on our cake. It’s also our lucky number, for that’s how many of us team up to make each issue of Bay Weekly.

Seven of us are old-timers: Founders J. Alex Knoll and Sandra Olivetti Martin (1993), joined by Betsy Kehne (1994), Lisa Edler Knoll (2000), Marnie Morris (2001) and Erin Huebschman and Carrie Madren (both 2004).

And seven of us are newcomers who’ve come aboard in just the past year: Production assistant Clara Gonzalez de Hall; Annapolis sales reps Dawn Gray, Beth Marx and Jennifer Duncan; southern sales reps Mike Mullican and Eleanor Nelson and staff writer Margaret Tearman.