News-Record.com

Our ongoing call for community columnists has stirred considerable interest among writers willing to audition for occasional space on our op-ed pages.

It also has raised some concerns from long-time readers that we're jettisoning syndicated columnists to make room for local folk.

This email came this week:

Well, here I am back again about the op-ed page--used to be asking for improvement, now just to defend the status quo, since I see the proposal is for a "significant shake-up". I realize that you are aiming at the newer generations and those of us who grew up on newspapers and can defend them as well as you can, will just have to adapt--altho we are sort of past the easy adaptation age. But really, I dont desire to read a bunch of locals--they may be very well informed people, but scarcely any have the background, the resources and the time to put out weekly or twice weekly columns of national and international content. I havent got time to fool with them and the various touchy=feelly features. Your editorials take care of opinion on the local level. I read them also.

We appreciate this regular reader's loyalty and we understand her concerns. And believe me, we don't want to lose what has earned us her loyalty over the years. But we also see an opportunity to make our pages livelier and more interesting.

We don't see these as conflicting goals. We believe we can have both. And we fully intend to.