As many of you surely realize, the newspaper industry has experienced some incredible challenges the past several years. Rising newsprint costs, declining circulations and decreased advertising revenues in a sluggish economy have forced newspapers throughout the country to make very difficult decisions in order to reduce costs. Some common examples have been staff reductions, fewer publication days and fewer pages.
Today, however, we are celebrating at The Goshen News as we re-launch what we believe is an improved Sunday paper. We have added pages and features throughout that we feel will better serve the readers who have stuck with us through both the good times and the lean times.
Obviously, we have re-tooled the look of our front page to give readers more information about what they can find inside the publication. On occasion, staff members will even contribute community columns in this “Column One” space.
Here’s a rundown of other enhancements you can find in today’s paper:
• A full contact listing on A2, along with a list of select activities and events coming up this week.
• A “Who You Should Know” feature that will run regularly on page A3.
• An extra op-ed page on A5 that will include political contacts and an “Official Issues” column in which we invite community leaders to contribute each week.
• A regular Sunday sports column by Goshen News sports writers each week on B1. We have also enhanced page B2 to serve as the local sports fan’s weekly playbook. It will include a schedule of upcoming high school and local college sporting events, a television listing and a roundup of local middle school events and bowling results from our local lanes. Outdoor columns by Louie Stout and Neil Case will again run on Sundays, rather than Mondays.
• More space has been dedicated to our business section, which is now section C. The business section will include an automotive preview, a technology page and a personal finance page. The technology page will feature a column by Mike Gingerich who heads the social app division at Digital Hill Multimedia in Goshen.
• The Life section has been moved to section D and will continue to include our Whole Family column by Stephanie Price, the Ask a Vet column, nuptials and advice pages, senior focus page, puzzle page and entertainment page. However, we have brought back national humor columnist Jim Mullen (The Village Idiot) at the request of readers and added “The Mini Page,” which is an activities page for young readers. Today you can learn all you need to know about algae.
• Also in the Life section we will highlight writers and bloggers of the “Goshen Commons” website on a weekly basis.
We are excited about these changes, just as we are excited to continue our commitment to provide quality and ethical journalism that benefits this community.
Putting out a daily newspaper is never easy. It is a coordinated effort of news gathering and production aimed at providing our community a useful service and historical record. It is never perfect as we try to balance the mix of news, sports and community and political commentary, often under deadline restraints.
We hope that you will enjoy this effort to bolster your Sunday edition of The Goshen News. Your satisfaction as subscribers means so very much to us and we certainly welcome your input and constructive criticism as we move forward. Thanks for reading and thanks for making us your community newspaper.
Michael Wanbaugh is managing editor of The Goshen News. He can be reached at michael.wanbaugh@goshennews.com
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