Earlier this week, this writer met with Sunflower Broadband employees to tell them a Georgia-based company named Knology was buying Sunflower Broadband.

I told them company officers and others had been meeting for some time to consider the pros and cons of selling Sunflower. When it was decided to go ahead and sell, the next step was to figure out whom we would like to have buy the division.

Fortunately, there had been considerable interest expressed by a number of major cable companies over the years about acquiring Sunflower. It may appear boastful, but Sunflower is looked upon by numerous leading cable/broadband authorities as an outstanding operation and one that has led the country in many innovations.

I told Sunflower employees I wanted to be able to look anyone in Lawrence in the eye and tell them we have handed Sunflower over to a good operator. World Company management was concerned about the retention of our Sunflower employees, retention of Channel 6 news and finding a company that would be a good corporate citizen of Lawrence.

Nothing is guaranteed, but there is every reason to believe Knology, a publicly traded company, will indeed be a good corporate member of the community, supportive of worthy civic projects.

This has been a major and emotional decision in that Sunflower Broadband was started from scratch without a single employee or subscriber. We started a news operation with a full staff without a single subscriber.

At the time we first sought the city’s cable franchise, I told city officials we would provide the best possible cable service for a city the size of Lawrence.

Over the past 42 years, I believe we have delivered on this commitment, and I have told Knology officials that we expect the same commitment from them. They currently have approximately 700,000 cable, telephone and Internet customers in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida and South Dakota and in cities with major universities and government and medical care centers.

They are used to operating in university communities such as Lawrence.

Channel 6 news will remain an important part of the World Company operation.

There are many challenges facing the newspaper business, but the Journal-World will focus on its core mission, which is to collect, organize and disseminate the news to keep the people of the Lawrence area well informed on what is going on. Our country was built with the idea of a well-informed citizenry making wise decisions on local, state and national matters. We will continue to have this as our goal, although the manner, shape and vehicle we use to disseminate the news may take different forms. We will have the Journal-World, a number of weekly papers in Kansas, Colorado and Arizona, 6News, the Internet and magazines, all produced by the World Co.

We have approximately 30 people designing new software with one of the company’s early projects being a platform called Django, which is used by more than 9,000 companies around the world, including Google and NASA.

The World Company has sold a major part of its operation, but it will continue to look for growth and new opportunities, taking advantage of the skills and dedication of its employees.

I am sorry to cut ties with Sunflower Broadband and the hundreds of talented individuals associated with the division. They have provided a truly superior cable/broadband for Lawrence and the surrounding area. It is my expectation Knology will continue to build on what Sunflower has created over the past 42 years and make it an even finer operation in the years ahead.

And the Journal-World and its related operations will continue to provide area residents comprehensive, accurate news reports.

We are fortunate to live and work in a city such as Lawrence and I will forever be appreciative of the hard, creative work of hundreds of individuals both at Sunflower Broadband and the World Company.