News-Record.com

3. Restore The New York Times News Service, especially Thomas Friedman.

4. "Eliminate Leonard Pitts, who contributes nothing."

5. Continue to spotlight local bloggers occasionally on the Sunday Ideas fronts. Wrote one reader: "The pieces devoted to [David]Wharton and [Joe]Guarino were great! Continue to do that when it fits and works. Same for 'Mixing It Up.' "

6. Add more conservative columnists.

7. Add more liberal columnists.

8. Find a strong conservative voice "that can make good arguments to replace Charles Davenport." Wrote one reader: "I appreciate the desire to have a local person who represents much of Greensboro's (or Guilford County's) desire for traditional values, however, Charles Davenport is not the man to do the job."

9. Start a citizen's advisory group to provide feedback and to act as a sounding board for ideas.

10. Host more community dialogues, like the one on school discipline. Wrote a reader: "Your ability to write in-depth series, encourage involvement by the necessary people at the forums, and adequately promote the events through your paper makes your organization ideal for furthering the work we need to do in this community with regard to economic development, land use, education, affordable housing, homelessness, and more."

11. Consider adding a public editor, as The New York Times has, "to address systemic issues in the paper (this past weekend it was regarding corrections) as well as to act as a receptacle for reader comments like an ombudsman."

12. Add "someone like Jack Betts of the Charlotte Observer" who can write knowledgeably about state politics and state government in Raleigh.

13. Addition of a point/counterpoint column in which two individuals have a written conversation on a given issue (not two juxtaposed columns).

14. Add a regular "campaign digest" feature during election seasons in which candidates from this area are invited to submit brief statements summarizing certain areas they would prioritize, or their position on a given issue. This would give the public a less filtered look than a traditional news story or editorial endorsement.

15. Add of more regular local columns, covering local and state government as well as other matters, with definitive points of view. "And these do not necessarily have to be a traditional 650-word length -- can possibly be shorter or longer."

16. Streamline existing content. "Consider limiting each syndicated columnist to one entry per week to increase the diversity of voices and avoid a disproportionate influence by any particular individual.

17. Consider eliminating the weekly features such as "thumbs up/thumbs down" and the listing of significant quotations from the week."These two features extend the newpaper's regular editorials and provide an additional route for the paper itself to express an opinion -- but perhaps the newspaper's own regular editorials should be sufficient for this purpose."

18. Have Ken Irons and Tracie Fellers write columns in addition to Allen Johnson and Doug Clark.

19. Ditch the Philadelphia Inquirer columnists.

20. Pick up the syndicated cartoon "Mallard Fillmore" by Bruce Tinsley, for the editorial page.

21. Give equal space to both conservative and liberal writers. "Have an Ann Coulter article once in a while," areader wrote. "It certainly would spice things up."

22. Run polls once in a while. "It would be interesting to know how many people in Greensboro really give a darn about the Truth and Reconciliation business," one reader wrote. "After all, they were COMMUNISTS and our enemy... not that I care a whit about the Klan, but polls online would give a clue as so many people keep quiet about what they really think. There could be a never-ending list of polls to take."

23. Don't change a thing. One reader lamented: "I was not pleased to see that you are planning to change your opinion pages. Currently, to your credit, you carry three of the best minds in the opinion business: George Will, Charles Krauthammer and Thomas Sowell. As it happens, they are all conservatives. They are now balanced by liberals such as Molly Ivins, Leonard Pitts, Trudy Rubin, Ellen Goodman and Rosemary Yardley. To my way of thinking, this is good journalism.

"However,you have already committed yourselves to making the opinion pages 'livelier.' And, since liberals outnumber conservatives in your letters to the editor, I would guess that the sentiment will be in favor of getting rid of one or more of the three conservative columnists I mentioned. I think the quality of your opinion pages will suffer."

And well, you get the idea. Actually, we get the idea. The list goes on.

Obviously, we can't do all these things, but we'll read every suggestion and consider it for the upcoming redesign of our pages.

We appreciate the feedback. Please keep it coming.