The publication of festive inserts by the National Herald dates back many decades. It has become a tradition.

These inserts, with the warm wishes of the advertisers, constitute a valuable guide to the life, strength and condition of the Greek community that prevails at this particular moment.

Furthermore, it is also an index of businesses, parishes, organizations, schools, associations, and individuals.

Furthermore is an index of those individuals who support this newspaper in appreciation of the valuable service provided by it.
At the same time, it is also a valuable archive of the life of the Greek community, extremely useful to historians, as well as to the next generations of the Community who will, one day, be interested in learning more about relatives, friends, compatriots, etc.
TNH is the main archive of the Community. So the list of those participating in the festive editions is valuable. And thanks to the generous financial support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the archive of the newspaper, since 1915, has been converted into a digital format – and it is very easy to find what you are interested in: https://digital.olivesoftware.com/olive/apa/ekirikas/#panel=browse.

Also, as I noted above, these inserts are also a serious source of income for the newspaper.

As you know, a newspaper relies mainly on advertising, newsstand sales and subscriptions, and now increasingly on digital subscriptions.
Although the economic model of newspapers is increasingly focused on revenue from its readers, which is also the most stable revenue stream, advertising is still necessary for its survival.

Unfortunately, Greece, which has a direct national interest in preserving the valid media of the Greeks abroad , was and continues to be indifferent to them. While it offers valuable financial support to the media within the country, those that cover Athens, as well as the provinces – as it should – it does not care about the media of the Hellenic diaspora.

A sad example is the media bill that was recently passed by the Parliament which completely ignores – as I am informed – the few valid media of the diaspora that are left.

Of course, there are also those, such as Archbishop Elpidophoros, who, as it turns out, unsuspecting of the importance of his position and the magnitude of his responsibility, refuses to place an ad with wishes… to the Community through our pages. He may believe that in this way he is “punishing” us for the recent criticism of him after standing by him, the first three years of supporting him, hoping after hope that he would prove worthy of his new position.

Of course, TNH regularly covers, as it should, his general activities. We owe it to our readers.

Unfortunately, he is following in the footsteps of some of his predecessors – not Iakovos – who believes that in this way he will force us to close our eyes, and to betray the trust of our readers for the mistakes and his personal agenda which is unrelated to the Community.

He obviously doesn’t know us well. Yet.

And anyway, this Christmas, too, the success of our inserts – in our English but also in our Greek – is great. Proof is the fact that the Greek edition consists of 204 pages and this edition of 52 pages.

This is proof of the trust of the Community in the National Herald. The proof of our people’s knowledge and awareness of the decisive, positive role played by the newspaper in the life of the Community.

Dear friends, your vote of confidence not only moves us, not only gives us the mental and financial strength we need to continue our work, but also increases even more the responsibility we feel towards you.

We are grateful to you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS