Newspapers are banking on change. Without change, there would be no news.
But at the same time, our customers like to get a feel for what to expect. This is why changes in format, style, page position and daily functionality are so rare.
So here is a warning for our loyal readers: Company-News will be a little different from tomorrow’s newspaper.
You could say that most of the changes are cosmetic. Stories and title fonts will be different. We think they’ll be easier to read and look great when our new news site comes out.
Local reporting as well as permanent articles such as Monday’s Man, Tuesday’s Teen and Wednesday’s Woman will continue to attempt to provide a fair and complete reflection of the communities and people we serve.
On the content side, the main changes are a new expanded weather map on page 2 each day, larger photographs for obituaries and some tweaks on Money, our business page posted on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
Revisions also transform the classified section by using larger character columns that will match other parts of the document.
Puzzle fans will find their four favorites – Crosswords, Cryptoquip, Seek and Find, and Jumble – amid the classifieds pages of each edition.
If you read the comics page daily, you’ll still have 14 laughs waiting for you, but the lineup is being revamped.
Seven will be immediately familiar as they’ve been in the diary for some time. The others are a mix of classics like Dennis the Menace and BC along with new features like Pickles, which focuses on life from the perspective of the elderly, and Curtis, in which the main characters are minorities. Also new is Fort Knox, which focuses on the life of a military family while borrowing its name from our local post.
These changes and our new net print job are part of the new owner updates and improvements. For seven weeks, Company-News is part of Paxton Media Group, a Kentucky-based company. Staff throughout the building have learned new operating systems and software that aim to streamline and improve our services to readers and advertisers.
Most of the upgrades were done in the background. The new look, which begins on Tuesday, could be the first concrete sign of improvement for the average customer, but we are confident that all of these efforts will ensure our future success as a business and improve the service we provide to you.
Our main missions, daily reporting and the advertising and promotion needs of local businesses, remain in the hands of competent and trained residents whom you have come to know. On the contrary, our ability to meet this commitment has been enhanced and refined by recent changes.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, as always, I’m ready to hear from you. The newspaper’s primary mission is to reflect the community it serves. We do it best when we are engaged in a dialogue. My contact details follow.