News-Record.com

People live in their own neighborhoods, shop at places near them, unless you live in east Greensboro, socialize with those they know and most attend segregated churches. In some circles, even attend neighborhood schools.

Media, real and fictional, offered the only time many people had a chance to learn about people not like themselves. So the chance to read about people living in other sections of the community and to see that all people function pretty much the same was a good thing. Zones, segmented sections almost make that impossible. As well, the newspaper likes to support regionalism. Again, these community sections and the news itself, make that hard for people to do.

I understand segmented marketing, but in some instances I don't think it serves the people well. It may very well serve the advertisers in the short run. But in the long term, I don't think any of us are served by efforts to separate rather than highlight those areas, subtle or not, where we are the same.

I agree that people in Guilford County are too segmented, in the sense that we're factionalized. But I don't think it is because people are so cocooned that they don't encounter people who are different. That would suggest that Billy Yow and Skip Alston would get along, and that sure ain't happening despite their spending hours and hours each week together.

And I don't agree that people who live in the same neighborhoods, attend the same schools, shop in the same grocery stores and worship at the same churches are the same.

But even if you buy that, our zones -- which divide Guilford County into three sections -- aren't so narrow that they segregate any demographic. East Greensboro, parts of which are predominantly black, is in the same zone as Northwest Greensboro, most of which is predominantly white. Colfax, High Point and Pleasant Garden receive the same publication. People have plenty of opportunity to read about people who look, act and think differently.

We created the three publications to serve readers and advertisers better. People in Pleasant Garden have no real reason to care about actions of the Stokesdale council. Same with McLeansville and High Point. If we can report more "stuff" that happens closer to where you live, we think we will be more relevant and useful. (Bear in mind that we still run a dozen or so local stories every day that are not zoned.) That will drive readership and, more important, we hope that it will create a more informed citizenry.