Mature Life Features

… as an adjunct to the Mature Life Features syndicate that, back in the ’80s and ’90s, had almost 100 monthly subscribers around the country.

We never hit 100 but had 97 for several months and more than ninety at the turn of this century. It settled down into the 60s until 2008, when the subscription list toppled to less than three dozen and slipped slowly until torn to tatters by the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.

Word has just been received that a subscriber who’s been with us for three decades has decided to shut down, joining the list of daily, weekly and monthly publications that have withered away because of a lack of readers and revenue with the rise of the Internet.

For that reason, we’re working on this blog — maturelifefeatures.com — to serve as a reminder of what small local newspapers used to be like since I spent more than six decades as a reporter and editor in that business. There won’t be any crossword puzzle or comics but we’ll try to pepper our features on various topics, such as health and finance and travel, with a funny line now and then.