PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Twenty-five years is a strange milestone. In some ways, 2001 feels remarkably close; in others, it feels like another lifetime.

When I started Forest & Bluff, I had an idea for a magazine that would belong specifically to Lake Forest and Lake Bluff—not simply report on the community, but reflect its character, its people, its history, and the things that made living here special. I believed there was room for something more personal and more connected to the place itself. What I could not have known was where that idea would lead.

Over these 25 years, Forest & Bluff has had the privilege of telling thousands of stories. We have photographed extraordinary homes, celebrated institutions that have shaped this community for generations, followed families through different chapters of their lives, introduced remarkable people to their neighbors, and documented moments that might otherwise have quietly disappeared. Some stories were grand and others wonderfully small, but looking back, I’ve come to believe both matter equally.

A magazine like Forest & Bluff only works when people trust you enough to let you into their lives. They open their homes, share family histories, tell you about the businesses they have built, the causes they care about, and the experiences that have shaped them. That trust has always meant a great deal to me and is one of the reasons this magazine has remained so meaningful after all these years.

Publishing has changed enormously since 2001. Technology has changed, photography has changed, design has changed, and the way people consume information has changed. Yet there is still something irreplaceable about holding a beautifully produced magazine in your hands. There is a permanence to print—a photograph, a story, or a moment preserved on the page that can remain in a home long after so much of what we see every day has disappeared from a screen. That belief in the value of print is as strong for me today as it was when we began.

Forest & Bluff also became the beginning of something I could never have fully anticipated. It eventually led to other publications, other communities, books, events, and what became JWC Media. But regardless of how much the company has grown or evolved, this magazine will always hold a special place for me because it is where the journey began.

None of it happens without people. Over the years, extraordinary editors, writers, photographers, designers, salespeople, and members of our team have given enormous amounts of themselves to Forest & Bluff.

Advertisers believed in us when we were new and many continued supporting us year after year. Most importantly, readers welcomed the magazine into their homes and made it part of this community. I’m deeply grateful to all of them.

There is one person I especially want to thank on this anniversary: my wife, Kim. She has been my greatest source of encouragement and my biggest fan from the very beginning. She believed in what I was trying to build before there was any certainty where it might go, and through every new idea, challenge, and opportunity, her support has had an immeasurable impact on both my life and the work I have been fortunate enough to do. I would not be celebrating this milestone without her.

Looking back over 25 years of Forest & Bluff, I’m incredibly grateful for the beautiful covers we’ve shared, the extraordinary people who have appeared on them, and the editors, photographers, writers, and designers who helped shape each issue.

Those covers have become a visual history of the magazine and, in many ways, of the community itself. But what has impacted me most are the relationships behind them—the people who trusted us with their stories, the readers who welcomed us into their homes, the advertisers who believed in us, and the family and team who made it possible to keep doing this work year after year. Twenty-five years later, the purpose remains the same: to tell the stories of this remarkable place and the people who give it its character.

Thank you for allowing us to do it.

JOHN W. CONATSER
Founder & Publisher