Dear Reader,

Last week the editorial staff of this newspaper joined other editors and writers in a company-wide meeting to focus on our mission and reason for being. For us, news gathering and content creation are a responsibility, a stewardship, an honor, and a privilege. To serve you better, we will focus on:

• Being hyper-local. As before, we will continue to provide content from the local community, such as municipal board and council meeting insights, school board meeting coverage, high school sports, and more. No one can do this like we can, in both print and digital settings. This is our reason for being, what makes us different from other media outlets. We are going to continue to focus on doing this well.
• Rising above politics. We believe that on any given issue, once you have the facts, you can make up your own mind. Our job, therefore, is to give you the facts. We avoid taking sides in any controversy, choosing instead to show up with reportable observations. No one can claim to be a completely dispassionate and unbiased observer of events, but we feel it is a goal worth trying to achieve. As for opinion pages and letters to the editors—we publish what we can, taking care to observe the bounds of polite conversation.
• Giving you the news you want, how and when you want it. Survey after survey has shown that readers look for shorter stories with more descriptive headlines, and more and better photos.  We aim to provide all of these things.

Yes, there will be exceptions depending on the news which is both unpredictable and exciting. But now you know what we are striving for.  We hope this is something you feel you can support.

Sincerely,
Patrick J. Wood
Publisher