Leland Burch has joined GreerToday.com, the community’s first free daily online newspaper serving the greater Greer area, as a contributor.
Burch’s award winning “Off The Record”, column of which he is the licensed owner, will now be published under the GreerToday.com banner. His farewell column, which put closure on his family’s 70-year ownership of The Greer Citizen, what was formerly the bible for Greer community news, was rejected for publication. However, the final “Off The Record” for print editions can be found here.
Burch’s column will continue to be produced weekly as he and his father, Edd, had done for generations.
“I’m excited for having an opportunity to continue to express my opinions about things,” Burch said. “A lot of people don’t want it to disappear. One thing that has been constant in our business is change. This opportunity is exciting and I think GreerToday.com is on the cutting edge.”
“The community has embraced GreerToday.com and having the opportunity to work together with Leland again is nothing but a plus for Greer,” Jim Fair, Editor and Publisher of GreerToday.com “Leland’s legions of fans will have free access to his “Off The Record” column and other features and stories he may contribute. There should be no doubt that Leland is responsible for my calling Greer home and working with the community to move it forward.”
Burch continues to be active in the community, a member of the Greer Lions Club and unknown by many, a sought after gardener of roses. Converse College recruited Burch to bring back its roses garden to the former vibrant growth at the stately Spartanburg school.
Burch also is working on one or more books that will be collections of his best “Off the Record” columns. No date has been set for publication. The book will be promoted on GreerToday.com.
The Burch family is synonymous with excellence in journalism in South Carolina. It was one of the few remaining family-owned newspapers in the communities where they lived.
Through the years Burch has championed journalism and its basic skills of reporting and writing. “Journalism itself hasn’t changed. You have to go out and work to get the news and be accurate. If you don’t present your stories and news reports with accuracy you don’t have credibility,” Burch said.
Friday night a loyal reader of Leland’s and his father Edd’s “Off The Record” column for over 50 years stopped him in the grocery store to ask about his plans. “I have had several people contact me who knew me and my father. It’s a good feeling to know they still read me and remember my father,” Burch said.