We’re still listening

“We are the newspaper that listens,” was the title and message of our first editorial written in 1996 under our current ownership of Sonoma West Publishers. That message and mission has not changed, but just about everything else in the newspaper business has.
IT’s hard to believe, but when we wrote that editorial 20 years ago, very few people used email or knew about the World Wide Web and the internet. There was no Google or Facebook and Apple’s iPhone would not be invented for 10 more years.
Listening back then meant receiving typed or hand-written letters to the editor, mailed press releases, phone calls or office visits. Now we get hundreds of emails a day (mostly spam). Our typewriters have been retired and phones are used for lots of other things besides talking and listening. We don’t get near as many office visitors as we once did. But we do have thousands of Facebook friends and more and more of you read us online every day instead of waiting for your weekly printed newspaper.
How we listen has changed, but most of the messages have remained the same. Readers still want their local news, city hall reports, hometown shopping reminders, police logs, school and youth sports and all the community happenings. You’ve been telling us you want to read about yourself and the people you know. The more local the better, you keep telling us.
We hear you and we thank you for giving us our purpose. Good communication has always been a two-way affair, only now it is more like a starburst affair, with tangents, tweets and rumors shooting off in all directions.
It used to be said that a good local newspaper was how a community talked to itself. Now, instead of a once-a-week printed version, our news conversation has moved online and is virtually 24/7 for anyone interested.
Effective immediately, regular readers and subscribers will notice changes to our printed version of the local news as we concentrate more of our efforts on an expanded online mix of news, resources, links and solicited comments. We will be putting more effort into daily news updates and reader dialogue on our websites (www.sonomawest.com.) We will be creating new opportunities for more of you to join the local news dialogue.
Our aim is to provide more and better local news, not less. We hear you, loud and clear, that you want the local news faster and more available in more places. We’ve noticed lots of news conversations in many places like private Facebook pages. We want to include all these smaller conversations in a bigger, more purposeful community forum.
If we are successful at expanding this local news conversation our audience will continue to grow and the local newspaper will get better at all the things you tell us you want.
In much less time than 20 years from now newspapers will look very different — and might not be printed on paper at all. But the need for an open access news and information utility, website or cloudware will still be indispensable. Someone like reporters, editors and a publisher will still need to listen, moderate and protect free speech, factual news and constructive dialogue.
If instead there are hundreds or thousands more private, censored or biased outlets, then the news conversation served by this newspaper will become extinct.
Besides just listening, Sonoma West Publishers in our 1996 editorial pledged to support local business ownership, a healthy natural environment and the well-being of all children. As we evolve our newspaper business we ask readers to join in our pledge. All you need to do is speak freely, practice mindful listening and be active citizens.
— Rollie Atkinson