KIRK ROSS
You may have noticed it already, but you’ll be starting to see a certain byline a little more frequently — mine.
Usually I reserve the Letter from the Editor marking the beginning of another year at The Citizen (we began publishing in March 2007) for some thoughts — lofty, snarky and in between — about the state of the news business. Mind you, there’s still plenty to be curmudgeonly about. This year, though, I’d like to offer a more personal note about some changes we are working on to take this paper to the next level.
One of the major changes is that Taylor Sisk has moved into the managing editor role and up to full-time. He’s taking on the bulk of the operations side of the newsroom and will also be writing more stories.
The purpose of that move is to get me doing more reporting and a little less desk work. I’m the first to admit that the day-to-day (or week-to-week, if you will) was burning me out. There’s a lot of stress in putting out a quality weekly paper and keeping up with a really swell website. (More about that change next week.)
For me, the biggest stress was not being able to do what I enjoy and perhaps what I do best. For most of the 25 years I’ve lived here, I’ve been involved in newspapers. The times I felt most alive and the job meant the most was when I had the opportunity to be the eyes and ears of the community.
It’s often been less than exotic work, involving lots of budget meetings and planning and zoning issues. (Yeah, I know; I get goose bumps when I think about those things too.) But when you stick around a place, you get to know people, and with that you become part of the community. You start caring what happens. In some circles in the journalism world, this is unfortunately viewed with disdain, and local knowledge is devalued. In my book, that detachment explains why the profession lost its way.
When Jock Lauterer’s community journalism class visits each semester, I try to talk to the students about human-scale journalism and ground-level reporting. These days, most of what passes for reporting takes place at least a few hundred feet above the action. But since most humans I know don’t live up there, much of what passes for writing misses the mark. Too many reporters write for their editors and not their readers, trying to explain a story from a small place such as ours to a much broader audience. I’m thankful for not having to define Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Chatham and Hillsborough for the rest of the Triangle or state or nation in each story.
You may not notice the changes at The Citizen right at first. But they’ll be in the substance of the paper — the choice of stories, their depth and the way they’re reported.
This is your newspaper — written, edited, composed and argued over in your community. Our success depends solely on whether we do a good enough job to be relevant to our readers and offer a good deal for our advertisers.
I look forward to our new year and spending a little more time at ground level with y’all. Feel free to drop me a line or call.
After three pretty exhausting years, I can finally say with some confidence, “Yeah, I got a minute.†Maybe even two or three.
This is great news for all of us, too, Kirk! Congrats to Taylor, and I’m looking forward to more of your witty reporting!