Coming soon to your driveway, doorstep, honor box or convenience store will be an edition of The Mercury that does something we are often accused of ignoring: Celebrate the local economy with success stories.
Our staff, in an effort coordinated by Business Editor Michelle Karas, is currently working on stories and photographs for the 2008 Progress edition on local business and industry.
Each year, this section features industries that may have been around a while but rarely are in the news. We also do features on retail changes, new projects coming to the area, and businesses that offer leisure or recreational activities. Last year, for example, the construction of the Philadelphia Premium Outlets in Limerick was a cover story for Progress.
We have featured longstanding businesses like Longacre's Ice Cream in Bally and new ventures like the Tri-County Performing Arts Center. We have written about factories, high-tech service firms and auto dealerships. We strive for variety geographically throughout the region as well as types of businesses profiled.
As business editor, Karas does an outstanding job every week in coming up with local business features for the daily and Sunday Business sections. But, Progress gives us a chance to profile businesses about which we are curious.
The process becomes a discovery of hidden gems in our area's economy.
This year's Progress features a firm that installed foam insulation into 89,000 cement blocks in the construction of Lincoln Financial Field; a business headquarters modeled after a ski lodge; a recreation site where the top of the rock is the goal; and a plant that makes remedies for ailing horses.
Progress is coming. Don't miss it.