Richardson, for a long time, has lacked its own home grown and locally owned news voice. At one time the Richardson Daily News was printed and delivered to homes several days per week with local reporters writing news about the city. One could find anything from stories about everything Richardson: Its people, its schools, youth sports, restaurants, and neighborhood news.

Those days are long past. As has been the trend for local newspapers in smaller towns, it was swallowed by a larger non-local media company. Even now the remnants of the old Richardson Daily News has been replaced by a large media conglomerate understandably not based in Richardson and whose ultimate interests are not focused on the citizens of Richardson.

These large media corporations often publish stories on Richardson only when the story titillates or when the story follows the adage, “if it bleeds, it leads.” When more benign stories of interest discussed in our local metropolitan daily, they are short and lacking in detailed substance, even in spite of some reporter’s best efforts to make it otherwise. This state of affairs is not in our best interests.

Nothing is probably more convincing in showing that Richardson has not been properly served by local news than how Richardson was portrayed during the recent controversy involving sexually oriented businesses (or so called “SOBs”.) Local media was replete with statements such as “sex district planned for Richardson” and “Richardson is about to open its doors to sexually oriented businesses” with television news interlaced with depictions of red light district stock footage and suggestions of topless dancing. The problem with these reports is that none of the aforementioned statements was true and the shock inducing stock footage contained scenes which would have violated a number of city codes from sign ordinances to alcohol restrictions even outside of any sexually oriented business ordinance changes. Only a whisper of these truths seemed to hit the news media.

Missing from all this was the better part of the story where Richardson had more restrictive laws regarding SOBs, was maneuvering to restrict them further, and now has some of the most restrictive and possibly the most restrictive ordinances in the Metroplex. Any sense of subtlety and complexity of the issue was missing. That is to say, what was absent was a good sense of information which would serve the citizen’s best interests. This is not to imply the city’s originally proposed plan should or would have been accepted by the citizenry. I mean to say that the citizenry will have a difficult time if misinformed by those who have a duty to inform them factually and honestly.<

The Richardson Echo was formed with a mission to change that. While the sexually oriented business controversy is not, by any stretch, the main reason why I chose to create it; it is a reminder of how it could have provided substantive and informative discussion by Richardson residents with the mission of serving the interests of Richardson residents and not interests of ratings.

Media and news interests can have a great impact on a community both positive and negative. It is far less likely that those impacts are positive if the people reporting the news are not local people with a stake in the outcome of things. The Richardson Echo is by Richardsonians for Richardsonians and so our passion for seeing Richardson succeed will be the reason we do what we do. The Echo wants to bring you complete and relevant news and let you express what is important to you in your community.

We do not mean to limit ourselves to “controversies” or to the goings on at city hall. We want to cover what is important in your area of town from local gatherings to business happenings to church events.

I chose the name “Richardson Echo” first and foremost because I want it to be an echo of the community. The people of Richardson need a voice to express their concerns and to remind us what a vibrant place Richardson is.

The Richardson Echo was also the name of Richardson’s first newspaper started by Sam Harben in Richardson’s early days. Just as the old Richardson Echo started delivering news for a new century in Richardson, the new Richardson Echo, in the land of the Telecom Corridor and in this newer medium of the internet, has a mission to link together and inform the community.

We will start humble and slow, but with your help and patronage we will grow. We have the goal of being a valued asset to the community and we view this as role, most of all, as one of service to the community.

We want your news. We want to know what is important to you and we want you to contribute. You know what is important in your neighborhood and so if you do not see it on our pages we want to know about it.

Thank you for reading and let us know what we can do to improve.