One Man's Perspective: Working to make our paper better for you

It's awful early to be in such a state of transition, but that's what we are in the newsroom.

Beginning Monday we will be welcoming a new staff writer to fill the desk that award winning writer Russ Mitchell occupied. Russ has moved on to take over the role of managing editor at the Dickinson County News - our sister paper located in Spirit Lake. We'll still have his writing occasionally on stories that are Corridor friendly; but our local news will now be in the hands of Gabe Licht who is arriving from Sibley where he has been basically a one-man team putting out the community's weekly paper. He does it all folks, layout, writing, photography and sports. I look forward to his addition and he will be a face you'll be seeing a lot of around Spencer.

As you may have noticed the paper has undergone some slight design changes over the period of the past two or three months. Many of these changes are geared towards making the paper a bit more reader friendly.

We've added the sidebar on the front page to let our readers know what they can find inside, coming up or to reference activity on our ever growing Web site.

Inside we have an expanded calendar of events, a special meeting watch graphic and we're continuing to make minor adjustments.

The Web site continues to generate a great deal of activity and conversation - which is exactly what we want. We're also trying to be proactive for our readers. During the recent storms, we've been able to post city snow emergencies. And it also allows us a way to provide breaking news.

It's just one more tool in the way we provide our subscribers and online readers with the news.

Soon I'm planning to begin a "Coffee with the Editor" each week at a coffee stop around town. I'll buy the coffee, you come and share your thoughts on the paper, the issues and offer some ideas on some interesting stories and people around town that we can in turn share with our reader base.

We're also working to establish a Facebook page for both the Daily Reporter and our the new Iowa Great Lakes Sports Source magazine. Obviously we'll look to use both Facebook sites as a communication tool for our readers. Each week, I'll have designated hours during which I will be on the pages to visit with readers and Facebook friends either via private inbox or in a public Facebook discussion. Either way, I'm excited about both the coffee and electronic plans when it comes to creating a better route of communication.

The Daily Reporter exists to serve our readers. We want to continue to find ways to make it an exciting product that provides all your local news, people and sports coverage. By getting out in the community - in person and electronically - we will be able to better serve by providing an even more open line of communication. And why shouldn't we, that is our business.

I'm anticipating that both the coffee and online live chat will take place on a Tuesday. When we lock in an official date, I'll be letting you know.

Thanks for your input, I'm looking forward to hearing even more from our readers.