A rearview mirror is useful, but only for a quick look.

Look at it too long and you might miss what is in front of you. That is true in driving and it is also true during anniversaries.

Daily Tribune turns 26 on 30 June 2026. Anniversaries usually make people look back. A newspaper that has lasted this long has earned that.

I cannot pretend to have been in the newspaper industry for a long time. I have been here for only two years.

In newsroom years, that probably makes me a new driver with a student permit.

I came in with a different kind of experience.

In 2024, I was one of many people asked to help during a period when there was work to be done. I tried to do my part.

Two years later, Daily Tribune is on stronger footing because its owners, leaders and entire team kept moving forward.

It is a privilege to work with people who helped make that happen.

Before this, my work for almost three decades was in engineering, visual effects, startups, restaurants, cloud kitchens, AI and software.

I have also failed in enough businesses to know that experience is sometimes an expensive tuition fee without a receipt.

That background somehow defines how I see a newspaper. I see the stories, but I also see the process behind them.

A story comes in and the work begins. People check the facts, write the headline, choose the photos and build the page. Stories, layouts get corrected, the issue goes out, and the next one begins.

There is nothing fancy about that when you are inside it. It is work.

It is similar to building software. You do not finish an app by writing one clean version and declaring the job done.

You build, test, find bugs, fix them and release again. Another problem appears, and the work continues. Software improves because someone keeps checking how it works in actual use.

A newspaper works similarly, as each issue goes out with the best work people can make at the time. Each correction and workflow fix helps improve the next one.

An anniversary is a good time to look back, but not too long. The old stories brought us where we are, but each issue still has to be done the best way we can. Readers still have to find something useful.

At 26, DAILY TRIBUNE deserves to celebrate its people and the service it has given to the community and the country. After that, the next edition begins.

Happy 26th anniversary, DAILY TRIBUNE!