What’s in a name? Quite a bit. In 2010 when my husband Ken Melchor and I were deciding on a name for our new adventure, a community newspaper, he immediately chose “Clovis Roundup.” I liked the name right away and thought it was perfect for a community newspaper based in Clovis. It was western in and of itself. It brought to mind cowboys crouching around a campfire after a cattle roundup, discussing the news of the day. It was a perfect depiction for the “rounding” up of community news.
However, I had concerns and voiced those concerns regarding the obvious conflict and confusion with the transit system. As I am sure many of you have noticed, in Clovis there is a bus line for seniors. On the sides and backs of those buses is the name of the line, “Clovis Round Up.”
Ken, however, was adamant about his name choice. For weeks I did my best to come up with a better name, but nothing sounded better than “Clovis Roundup.” It was the perfect name for our endeavor. Why not? It probably did not matter anyway. We had no experience as publishers or even as news reporters, for that matter. We had no start up resources or financing. I gave us one year!
Obviously, I greatly underestimated my husband and the Clovis community. Here we are 10 years later and still suffering the consequences of our choice in name.
Each of us at the Clovis Roundup has the phone number for the transit system on a stick it note on the wall over our desk as we get daily phone calls requesting a ride. Some are more insistent than others.
When conducting business or just talking with people in the area I have been asked, “Oh, what do you do there? Are you a driver?” Then I have to explain, “No I am the publisher of the community newspaper.”
All said, we still love our name, our paper, our community and even the calls requesting a bus ride!
So, if you have a story suggestion, are requesting information on where and how to get a copy of the paper, wanting to subscribe or advertise, please call us at 559 324-8757. If you need a ride on the bus, call (559) 324-2760 or call our office and we’ll be glad to give you the number. After all, it is on a post-it in front of all of us here at the office.