Happy New Year and welcome to 2026.
Paradise News has been celebrating its 30th Anniversary for almost two years now. It’s first edition in December 1995 was a 24page black and white printed on 11”x17” bond paper with green highlights on the front and back covers. It was published by Paradise Associates, a company formed by Renee Roos and Sally Yoder, community newsletter publishers from Pass-a-Grille and Vina Del Mar, who met as volunteers at the fledgling Gulf Beaches Historical Museum. The cover story was about The City of St. Pete Beach’s “new” police and emergency preparedness station (that was demolished in 2015, after the force was absorbed by the sheriff in 2012). City Manager Danny Walker talked about record signups for reclaimed water and announced that the millage was lowered again for 1996, and that Upham Beach would be renourished come spring.
We celebrated the upcoming 30th year in our February 2024 issue, the cover of which pictured about a hundred of our latest editions with striking full-color covers. Don’t remember? You can still see it and even read it through our website. For over 15 years, Paradise News has been increasingly active online.
Our website, www.paradisenewsfl.com celebrates the local community and introduces everything the magazine embodies. On the home page, under the Current Issue button is one for Past Issues that brings up more than the past 10-years-worth of our publishing history. All copies of the magazine are downloadable, in full or in part, or you can flip through them online. Under “Weekly” you will find the Paradise News internet team’s pick of the five top things to do each weekend, sent to a growing list of folks who subscribe to the weekly digital newsletter for free. Feel free to enter your email address, we do not share that information with anyone.
We feel blessed to have been able to provide this community service for over 30 years, thanks to an amazingly loyal group of advertisers and a terrific band of writers, editors, an amazing art director, proofreader and internet team, some of whom have even become longtime friends. While there are times in the past year that we have questioned whether the publication’s name still fit, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and returning “home,” the sunsets and amazing weather reminds us that life on the Suncoast, especially in the Sunset Capital of the Sunshine State, truly is Paradise.
This issue we present how Marina Bay, an amazing residential development on the coast that survived the storms intact. We also present programs designed to help reimburse homeowners for out-of-pocket repair expenses for their homes. Another faith-based volunteer program is aimed at helping people avoid mental illness and homelessness
Active links are provided in the weekly digital newsletters and at www.paradisenewsfl.com.
To advertise, please call Pete at 813-230-3965 or email sales@paradisenewsfl.com.