Say the word Profile around a Natchez Democrat employee during the month of January and you likely will see a flash of fear in their eyes.

That’s because January every year around here is Profile crunch time. However, even those who fear it here would agree, it’s worth all of the effort that goes into it.

It’s a labor of love for us, but make no mistake about it, it is indeed a lot of work.

At the same time, it’s an opportunity for our staff to do their best work of the year.

We begin the effort of creating Profile in October of each year, as we did again this year. We have until the end of January to complete the annual edition.

We have more time than usual to write stories and take photos. More time to sell and create enticing advertisements for our customers. More time to do our best job telling you the annual story of our community.

I don’t know how many years Natchez has been producing Profile, known in our industry as a progress edition. I started working on Profile here when I was home for Christmas breaks during college, beginning in Christmas 1981. And I’ve helped produce a Profile-type edition at one of our newspapers every year except one since that time. That’s a lot of Profiles!

Our theme this year is a step away from the norm, and we’re having fun with it. We are going to introduce (or re-introduce you) to the 100 people to know in the Miss-Lou. These people — young and old, rich and not so rich, famous and not — have left or are leaving their mark on our community.

Our entire staff gathered to come up with our list of 100 people to know.  Some thought it would be difficult to come up with the list. Turns out, that wasn’t our problem. Culling it down to 100 was.

At the end, we were all impressed with the collection of interesting folks who are our neighbors and co-workers and teachers and people you don’t know.

Their stories are absolutely fascinating.

These people — and you and I —make up this amazing place we call home.

We’re certain you are going to find the stories and photos in Profile 2020 interesting and entertaining.

Expect to find your copy of Profile 2020 in your Natchez Democrat on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020. We think you’re going to love it.

Jan Griffey is general manager of The Natchez Democrat. You can reach her at 601-445-3627 or by email at jan.griffey@natchezdemocrat.com.