The Friday Flyer celebrates 30th birthday

The very first newspaper edition of The Friday Flyer hit the streets in November 1990, and the lead story was announcing the results of the election that formed the City of Canyon Lake.

That newspaper, printed with a full page black and white photo and a single spot color logo, was a combination of a newsletter the Canyon Lake POA had been publishing in conjunction with the Canyon Lake Home Owners Club and the weekly 8.5×11 single page flyer handed out to residents at the gates every Friday, which was appropriately named, The Friday Flyer.

That Friday Flyer sheet handed out at the gate was so popular, it was decided the new community newspaper that began publishing 30 years ago would retain its name. Hence, The Friday Flyer newspaper was born.

Golding Publications had just begun as a business in a small office in the Canyon Lake Town Center in July of that year. The publishing company had intended to focus on printing various high-end residential directories, including The Canyon Lake Residential Directory.

The Canyon Lake POA, though, approached the infant company and asked if it would take over the publication of its monthly newspaper. After some negotiating, it was decided Golding Publications would publish the weekly Friday Flyer, combining the two existing POA publications into a single community newspaper.

The POA turned ownership of the newspaper over to Golding Publications in the 1990s and continued to pay the company through paid subscriptions in exchange for several pages of official POA-provided news content. That contract, after 24 years in existence in one form or another, was canceled by the POA in 2014.

Subsequently, The Friday Flyer turned to its readers to purchase subscriptions to the weekly mailed newspaper, which helps finance the news operations of the publication.

Despite beginning the next 30 years in the middle of a pandemic, The Friday Flyer is intent on providing the community with an even more enhanced level of exclusive and informative coverage of Canyon Lake news and activities. Subscribers turn to their community newspaper, one of the few still publishing in the county, for its local news and information.