SALISBURY — Bernie Mann, president and publisher of Our State magazine, detailed his experience in the business for members of the Rotary Club,also  noting how much this organization has helped people over the years.

He spoke Thursday morning at Trinity Oaks.

Mann first came to Salisbury to speak to the Rotary Club years ago and said he is grateful to be back and see how much the area has changed since then.

“I think it’s lovely. Salisbury’s a great town, a community growing. We write about Salisbury all the time,” Mann said.

He has been a Greensboro Rotary member since 1990 and served as president from 2006-2007. He told about the challenges of how they built a carousel and then an entire building around it. Even when the price of the project increased, the club was still able to raise money to complete it. He stressed the importance of the work that is done at home, not just abroad.

“Doing something like we did gives us all pride. We could go to this carousel and say, ‘Look what we did.’ Unfortunately, most of us can’t go to Africa and see the accomplishments of Rotary,” Mann said.

Speaking on the difficulties of running a print publication in this day, Mann paints a picture of how they upheld their values to be a magazine that everyone in North Carolina can honored by. He focused on overall positivity to help drive readers’ interests. This includes never mentioning the word “COVID,” not running certain advertisements and writing about good restaurants or books by never actually reviewing them.

“We live in a world filled with nothing but negativity. … You’ve got to stand for what you feel is right,” he said. “We’ve been able to survive by being able to be important to the people who care.”