Happy New Year: Our news agenda for 2006
Last year on New Year's Day, I outlined how we planned to make the newspaper more vital to you in 2005.
In that column, I wrote that our goal was to become an intensely local, community-oriented newspaper. I quoted our city editor, Mark Sutter, who described the newspaper and our Web sites as a virtual town square:
"We are the place where our neighbors come to hear the latest local news and share their own news -- big and small. It is where they come to shop and to play; to learn and to laugh. It is where they find out what is happening in the community; and how they can go or get involved."
I repeat that here because it remains our key goal in 2006. Here is what it means more specifically:
* Local news will continue to fill our pages. We have more reporters and more local news than any other news source in Guilford County, including the local television stations. Every day we strive to give you the most complete picture of what happened yesterday and what's going to happen tomorrow.
Our goal in 2006 is to give you even more news and information that you cannot get elsewhere. We won't neglect national and international news, but the days in which wire services dominate the front page are waning at mid-size newspapers across the country. Instead, we will devote more space inside the paper for the stories that explore national and world issues in greater depth.
* We will write more stories that impact your lives. The best journalism touches a nerve, either because it reveals an injustice, speaks to your heart or causes you to act. Perhaps it's a story about the disabling effects of lead paint on children or the ease with which illegal immigrants can get driver's licenses in North Carolina. It could be a series about Jinni Hoggard and her inspirational struggle to beat cancer. These stories make a difference in the lives of readers and society. Expect more.
* The newspaper will be redesigned to make it easier to read and more useful. The look will be cleaner and more elegant. More photos will give you a better window to the world. In general, stories will be
shorter with more information broken out to help you digest the impact of the news more quickly. We'll be introducing new content.
I'll write more about this in March when we're closer to its launch.
* Stories, columns and photos by readers will get greater visibility. We know that our readers know more than we do about a good number of subjects. We want to tap that knowledge and encourage you to write what you know for the benefit of the community.
We'll do that in two ways. First, we're going to expand the number of our Hometown Hubs. We currently have hubs -- which are Web sites of citizen journalism based in specific parts of the county -- in Summerfield and the Rock Creek region in eastern Guilford and western Alamance. We plan to add High Point, East Greensboro, Pleasant Garden and Kernersville in the next few months. As we do now, we will publish a sampling of this news in the newspaper.
Second, we will solicit more contributions to our YourNews Web site,
which is open to anyone to tell a story they think needs to be told. Access both these sites through www.news-record.com and click on the Town Square tab.
* We will expand the ways you can get news and information from us, and the ways you can talk with us and each other. Expect more blogs, forums, multi-media programs, podcasts, photo galleries and videos. (If you haven't sampled these, go to www.news-record.com. Be careful, though, they can become addictive.)
These aren't all of our goals for the year; we're an ambitious lot. I'll tell you more about them in this space on subsequent Sundays. The newspaper is a living, breathing product that grows and changes as its readers grow and change.
Twenty years ago, when we referred to the newspaper, we had to specify whether it was the morning or afternoon paper. Ten years ago, "newspaper" meant the News & Record, which was -- and still is -- delivered every morning.
Today when I refer to the newspaper, I mean that daily newspaper and the various Web sites that we operate.
I don't know what the term "newspaper" will mean 10 years from now, but I'm positive it will be different from what you hold in your hands and read on the computer.
Through it all, our pledge to you remains unchanged: to be an independent voice in pursuit of the truth; to give you information you need to make smart choices in your life; and to be a trusted place to hear, share and talk about the news.
Comments (5)
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May the rest of the newspapers in North Carolina be as courageous and dedicated as yours
Posted on January 1, 2006 5:44 PM
Give us a vital comics page worth reading every single day. Manga is fine. Anything is fine aside from the pap we have been subsisting on for the past 20 years. Who cares what Stereotypical Grandma #287 thinks about a borderline controversial strip. Bring it on! Did you know Dennis the Menace used to play with scissors? Big ones! Did you know Dick Tracy used to kill people? Why, Fred Basset himself once killed a man just to watch him die! Well, okay maybe not that last one. My point is there is no reason newspapers should allow an artform, which they created to lure readers, to die so slowly and painfully.
Posted on January 1, 2006 7:23 PM
The key isn't hiring your readers to write for you but getting rid of any old, tired hacks who do, and the old tired hack editors who find it easier to keep them than get a new idea or weather criticism from old lady number #287 (see above). Oh yeah, and then hired talented professional writers, especially those who know and understand the area.
Posted on January 3, 2006 1:34 AM
Beautifully done.
Posted on January 3, 2006 11:24 PM
Today we see more cheap writing in magazies and books that are just short of being dumb. I'm glad the News-record is taking the high road and I feel there is a place for a Daily paper in this modern world. It seems the editors are taking the right written systems to draw a good well rounded readership. I no longer read all the comics but are selective in and partial to many of them. I am still amazed at the pictures and the good color. Most of the color ads welcome customers to buy. Thomas B. Yow Sr.
Posted on March 2, 2007 4:30 AM