Weekly kicked off new year with a front page all about health

The week or two after Christmas is a slack time for weekly newspapers; some still take a week off. But the Adair County Community Voice in Columbia, Ky., took the period as an opportunity to spotlight personal stories about local residents' efforts to improve their health.

"We try to be prepared for slow weeks during the holidays by making sure we have options, but it really would have taken something pretty massive to kick these stories off the front," Editor-Publisher Sharon Burton said in an email to Kentucky Health News.

"A lot of people refocus on their health during the new year, so we knew these articles would be timely and draw interest," Burton wrote. "My assistant editor made a major healthy lifestyle change in his life several years ago and is passionate about this topic. I think it shows in these articles."

To read the stories, click here. For the jump page where the articles are continued, click here.

For an editorial by Burton that was also a good way to begin the year, with her sharing some philosophies of life, click here.