Friday Flyer Editor Donna Ritchie bids farewell

Friday Flyer Editor Donna Ritchie has been active in the community since moving to Canyon Lake in 2013. In 2014, Donna was named Mrs. Canyon Lake. She was named Citizen of the Year in 2016 and in 2019, Donna represented The Friday Flyer as Business of the Year in the Fiesta Day parade. Photo provided by Donna Ritchie

The printed newspaper version of The Friday Flyer was born in 1990 by Publisher Chuck Golding and Editor Carolyn Knight. In the nearly 30 years since its inaugural edition, The Friday Flyer has been led editorially by only three editors: Carolyn, Sharon Rice and Donna Ritchie. All three have been fully engaged in the Canyon Lake community and have provided detailed news coverage of the events and people of this great town.

The staff of The Friday Flyer is being reorganized to become more efficient and one of those casualties of the realignment is losing current Editor Donna Ritchie. This week’s edition of The Friday Flyer will be her final edition as editor of the newspaper.

“We are really saddened to bid farewell to Donna as our editor,” Chuck, The Friday Flyer publisher, said. “She has been an amazing editor. Her passion for this community has always been deep and genuine. Our newspaper has never had the quantity and variety of content that has been provided by Donna. She was determined to be at every major event and most others that took place here in Canyon Lake.”

Donna was hired as editor in August 2016. She came on board as a talented photographer and prolific community poster of events and issues via her Facebook group page. Her presence at Canyon Lake events and meetings was already known by those active in the social and political world here. Stepping into her new role as editor of the community newspaper was a natural step into the higher profile position.

“There’s no replacing Donna Ritchie,” Chuck said. “She not only wrote almost all of the content in the newspaper, provided tons of photos and coordinated all content each week, but she also was primarily responsible for The Friday Flyer design and layout.

The newspaper Facebook page exploded with Donna posting something nearly every day about significant newsworthy things happening in Canyon Lake.”

Without Donna, starting next week The Friday Flyer content will be generated by newly-hired reporter Kelly Archuletta as well as news content and photographs provided by Friday Flyer readers, clubs and organizations. The Friday Flyer website, FridayFlyer.com, will have easy tools for these community members and others to upload stories and photos for possible inclusion in the newspaper.

“No other changes will occur as a result of this fine-tuning of our efficiency,” Chuck said. “Our readership is incredibly strong. We will continue to publish every Friday with the same distribution as we’ve always had. The number of pages will continue to be calculated based on ad sales and will be in either two or three sections, depending on press economy. We’re confident The Friday Flyer’s popularity will continue to grow well into this new decade.”