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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

Before the frenzy of Best of Jackson winner and party madness kicks in, I want to give props to the best staff a company can have. The JFP staff members have worked tirelessly to produce the biggest (page count and advertising) issue we have ever produced. Managing editor Maggie Neff, editor’s assistant Sage Carter-Hooey, operations manager/Boom editor Ronni Mott and I counted the ballots, assigned and trafficked the four sections. Web designer Vince Falconi designed the best online voting interface we’ve had yet. The sales staff—publisher Todd Stauffer and sales execs Kimberly Griffin, Ashley Jackson and Sumter Scheppe—worked with local businesses to both sell and conceptualize wonderful ads, and to give us enough pages to put out a really impressive salute to Jackson. Accountant Montroe Head has to keep track of all the business madness. And, oh, the designers—whom we’re now calling the “angels”—editorial designer Melissa Webster, (new) advertising designer Casy Leatherman and ad production czar Christi Vivar simply kicked butt. Special thanks to freelancer designers Darren Schwindaman and Ben Deneka; Darren came in and helped with the ad crunch and Ben did the Monopoly-inspired cover. And, of course, reporters Adam Lynch and Ward Schaefer pitched in where needed and kept the news machine going while we obsessed with millions of little big blurbs. Of course, all of our freelance writers deserve huge praise for turning around the blurbs so quickly (we promise more time next year, guys!) and interns Rosie Nolan and Jackson Breland factchecked their faces off, as well as all sorts of other help we couldn’t do without. Photographers Kip Caven, Roy Adkins, Lizzie Wright and Pat Butler helped gather the images quickly. Now, Sage and Kimberly are spearheading the big party effort Sunday.

Previous Comments

Oh, and lest I forget all the amazing distribution folks who will get this fat (and heavy) issue on the streets this street, THANK YOU!

#143017 | Author: DonnaLadd | Date: Jan 21 2009

I am proud to be a part of the best publication in the city of Jackson and look forward to many more years! thanks donna, todd, maggie and everyone for the opportunity you have given me sincerely and from the heart- kip

#143028 | Author: kcaven | Date: Jan 22 2009

No, thank you, Kip. ;-D

#143032 | Author: DonnaLadd | Date: Jan 22 2009

Founding Editor Donna Ladd is a writer, journalist and editor from Philadelphia, Miss., a graduate of Mississippi State University and later the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was an alumni award recipient in 2021. She writes about racism/whiteness, poverty, gender, violence, journalism and the criminal justice system. She contributes long-form features and essays to The Guardian when she has time, and was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Jackson Free Press. She co-founded the statewide nonprofit Mississippi Free Press with Kimberly Griffin in March 2020, and the Mississippi Business Journal named her one of the state's top CEOs in 2024. Read more at donnaladd.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @donnerkay and email her at donna@mississippifreepress.org.