I’ve been sending our editorial department staff (i.e., the newsroom) multiple emails regarding the printing company switch our publisher / owner Chelsea Marr wrote about in the Jan. 8 edition, and it occurred to me that perhaps I should also let readers know of the various newsroom changes underway at Columbia Gorge News.
The main thing I want to stress is that our new printing press deadline — meaning when we have to have the week’s edition pages sent to get it back in time for Wednesday’s mailbox delivery — is perhaps the biggest change coming: All submitted content, including letters to the editor, press releases, event listings, and announcements, must be received at our office by Wednesday end of day for the following Wednesday edition. Obituary deadlines are now Monday at 9 a.m.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a major shift in deadlines in the newsroom, and the new timeline doesn’t faze me — though it will take some getting used to. The worst that happens if your item is submitted late is that it will go online on our website and pushed out on our social media channels, and then included in the next edition as space allows.
I imagine I will be breaking a lot of hearts over the next few weeks. Rest assured, if we can get your item in, regardless of when it’s submitted, during this switching-deadlines period, we will. But there will come a time when these deadlines will no longer be negotiable.
Which sounds kind of rude, I know, but the printing press waits for no one. Not even me.
The other note of importance is that you are going to see some changes in the way our newspaper looks. Some will be subtle, some maybe not so much. With a new printing press comes new guidelines we must follow (how many pages each edition can have, how the mailing label is attached, page size, things like that), and because of that, we’re looking at ways we can utilize every inch of space. We’ll be trying things out and adjusting as necessary. If you see us doing a design change that you like — or hate — please let me know. I’m easiest to reach via email at trishaw@gorgenews.com.
Print journalism is something of a rarity these days, and I can’t help but be proud of our little newspaper that could. Nothings stays the same (and I say that as someone who walked downtown Bingen, White Salmon, Hood River and The Dalles as a child in the early 1980s), and our newspaper hasn’t, either.Â
I’m truly excited about what we’re undertaking. These are all in the realm of positive changes that will ultimately help us keep our printed format.
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