Welcome to your new hometown newspaper

Welcome, readers, to the first edition of the Windermere Observer, a sister paper of the West Orange Times & Observer, which has roots that date back to the Winter Garden Ricochet in 1905.

For more than a century, our newspaper — through all its previous owners and iterations — covered the entire West Orange region with just one edition.

Today, that changes.

Put simply: West Orange has grown too large for one hyper-local community newspaper. For longtime readers: this new Windermere Observer will cover Windermere, Horizon West, Dr. Phillips, Bay Hill, Gotha and MetroWest, while the West Orange Times & Observer will renew its focus on Winter Garden, Ocoee and Oakland.

As the 10th newspaper owned by the Sarasota-based Observer Media Group, the Windermere Observer will strive to deliver on OMG’s slogan: “You. Your Neighbors. Your Neighborhood.”

Each week, these pages will be filled with accurate, honest and complete news coverage; entertaining and compelling features about you and your neighbors; photo galleries of local events; and a comprehensive sports section dedicated to local athletics.

Each week, the Windermere Observer will be distributed in key neighborhoods and newspaper boxes throughout Southwest Orlando. Some communities will receive it on driveways, while others will have it mailed directly. Online, the Windermere Observer can be found at WOTimes.com, and through our presence on Facebook and Twitter (@ObserverOrange), you will have a direct connection to the people behind the ink and paper.

Of course, any great hyper-local community newspaper is only as good as its readership. And that’s where you come in. Each week, the staff of the Windermere Observer promises to publish exactly the kind of newspaper you desire.

Here’s what we’re asking of you: Tell us what that paper looks like. We welcome your story ideas. Let us know about your accomplishments; we want to celebrate with you.

Thank you for picking up our inaugural edition. We look forward to bringing you many more in the years to come.

— Michael Eng, executive editor

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Welcome to the first edition of the Windermere Observer. We publish weekly on Thursdays and deliver to mailboxes, homes and locations throughout Southwest Orange County.

The Windermere Observer is the sister paper of the West Orange Times & Observer, which is celebrating 110 years of publishing in the West Orange community in October. Combined, the two reach 75,000 readers weekly.

We hope you enjoy this first edition, and we look forward to publishing weekly. Thank you for reading, and we look forward to serving the Southwest Orange

— Dawn Willis, publisher