General Manager’s Note — September 2007

General Manager’s Note — September 2007

Written by Claire Love Friday, 07 September 2007

Keeping it local

My dad and brother work in the residential construction industry, so I’m familiar with the impact that rain can have on the ability to get a job done.

It seems as though every time I took my son over to his grandparents’ house this summer, everyone was glued to the Weather Channel to see how much rain was expected the next day.

For anyone in construction, I know I’m singing a familiar tune — an 80 percent chance of rain means a 100 percent chance you’re not working, and that dampens more than just the soil.

The good news is that neither the rain, nor anything else, appears to be slowing things down.

While working on the housing story, the lead writer told me she had met with local experts and they all told her that the housing market in this area is doing well. Playing devil’s advocate, I mentioned a headline I saw on the front page of another local newspaper: Home sales in worst slump in 5 years. Kara couldn’t imagine the story was about the local market because everything she had heard up to that point was optimistic.

After reviewing the story in more detail, I realized the story was Associated Press news out of Washington and the headline was referring to the nationwide housing market. The “slump” was primarily taking place in the Midwest, according to the article.

It amazes me when content so non-local makes the front page. As a homeowner, I’m interested in how the market in my area — the one in which I chose to make an investment in a home — is doing. That’s the angle we have taken with our story, and it serves as a perfect example of how we’re different. Despite the extra effort it takes to localize a story like this, we feel confident it’s what our readers want.

It has always been, and always will be, our mission to keep our content local and useful. We’ll leave any uncertainty on what’s happening in the area to the weather man.

Claire M. Love, General Manager