Post 200: Breaking and exclusive news from the BrentWord home office

This is my 200th BrentWord post! Hard to believe that's possible.

On April 13th, I started BrentWord in order to cover the Brentwood City Commission race and Brentwood in general (http://brentword.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-day-dawns.html). Over the past four months, the blog has grown into something much more. But I've also experienced a growing frustration with it. The format is too limiting, and the pay ... well, suffice it to say the Leathers' last emergency fund is on its last leg.

So this seems like a most appropriate time and place to share what I hope is big news. My business partner, Kelly Gilfillan, and I have formed BrentWord Communications LLC and will launch Brentwood Home Page -- http://www.brentwoodhomepage.com/ -- "the go to place for everything Brentwood" in the weeks ahead.

I'm a professional reporter, editor and 27-year veteran of the newspaper business. Kelly has an impressive background in marketing and sales. Our goal? If you live or work in Brentwood, we want to be your home page. We want to be where you come to find news stories and pictures and party news about Brentwood. We'll have business news and obituaries and tomorrow's weather forecast. Sorry, no comics, but for at least a time after we launch, I expect there will be a few funnies to laugh about. Please laugh with us, not at us, as we learn the ways of the Web and grow our content.

Already you've gotten a taste for what we hope to include on a regular basis -- information about what's going on in your neighborhood. I toot my own horn that BrentWord was the news leader in coverage of the recent home burglaries that have taken place here and the subsequent police investigations and actions that led to the arrest of five suspects. Expect more of the same in the months ahead.

And remember Jill Burgin, whose column was long a favorite of Williamson A.M. readers every Sunday morning? She's going to be one of our featured columnists, along with a few others I'll wait to surprise you with.

But we can't do it alone. Brentwood Home Page will need input and information from every corner of the city, and every club, sports team, house of worship and school to truly make it a community "newspaper" --- without the paper, that is. If you have news or a calendar item to share, mail it to Brentwood Home Page, P.O. Box 3704, Brentwood, TN 37024-3704. Our new email system will be set up soon but in the meantime, feel free to email items of interest, story ideas and party pics to brentword@comcast.net. Just put Brentwood Home Page, or BHP as we've started calling ourselves, in the subject line. Don't forget to include your name and a daytime telephone number.

Remember I mentioned that almost-empty emergency fund? Brentwood Home Page is the perfect place to advertise your business, your sports team, your professional practice. For more information, email Kelly at Kelly@brentwoodhomepage.com.

So there it is. A scoop from the BrentWord home office. Stay tuned for details as they develop. And in the meantime, if you have news tips, ideas or comments, please don't hesitate to share them. Until the launch of Brentwood Home Page, BrentWord.blogspot.com, and Kelly's blog at www.outsidethebrentwoodbubble.blogspot.com are still alive and well.

Thanks for being part of this wonderful ride. We are truly blessed to live here.

Susan