i Editor's Letter: Happy third birthday to the i!

Where were you on 26 October 2010? How has your life changed since? I remember going into my newsagent and handing over 20 pence for the first edition of a newspaper called i. “A new kind of paper, designed for people with busy lives,” the staff promised. “Colourful, concise and intelligent.” We pledged to “take seriously our role as your guide through a world overloaded with information”. I hope we remain true to that mission. The participatory nature of i means that you don’t take long to let us know when we err – and the improved newspaper you hold this morning is largely the result of your correspondence.

I looked through that first edition last night. Despite a Sesame Street tease on the front asking “Is Bert Gay?” and an enormous, unexplained picture of Jeremy Clarkson on page 2, you stuck with us.

These past three years have seen i’s journalists travel the world to bring you news: the Arab Spring, Christchurch earthquake, Fukushima, the Royal Wedding, the killings of Osama bin Laden and Muammar Gaddafi, August riots, birth of the seven-billionth person, phone hacking, WikiLeaks, Hurricane Sandy, Syria’s uprising, the Diamond Jubilee, Olympics, Paralympics, Prism spying revelations, resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and, today, the Belgian pigeon doping scandal.

“Three years already?” asks David Steele from the Wirral, in one message to our HQ yesterday. “Never missed an issue. Hopefully you’re around for many years to come.”

By three years of age, parenting guides explain, “your child is learning to be social, and will be able to play co-operatively for a short time with other children”. So, as we tuck into jelly and cake, and ask the bouncy castle people to invoice our managing editor Sean, we raise a glass of fizzy pop to you, i’s readers. Cheers.

i@independent.co.uk

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