By KIT SLACK
PHOTO CREDIT Kit Slack
Thank you to the more than 200 readers who took the first audience survey for College Park Here & Now and our sister publications,Hyattsville Life & Times and The Laurel Independent. I am so grateful for the thoughtful responses and excited about the conversations they are starting.
Through your survey responses, you told us that you look to us primarily for city government coverage, as well as things to do and local events.
Let me recommend our free, twice-a-month email newsletter, launched this year, to those of you looking for local event listings. Subscribers to that resource said they are especially satisfied with our comprehensive, timely listings: streetcarsuburbs.news/subscribe.
You also rely on us for hyperlocal housing, development and land use news, and news about local businesses and environmental issues – and you noticed that often we are the only source available for that information.
We got lots of compliments on our profiles of local community members and organizations working to improve our neighborhoods. We especially appreciated that, as we are proud of those, too, and will keep them coming.
People said they love our gardening and nature columns by local experts. Thanks Miss Floribunda, Rick Borchelt, Jimmy Rogers and all of our volunteer columnists.
In Hyattsville and Laurel in particular, readers asked for more depth and detail in our city council coverage. “You need paid reporters,” said one sympathetic reader familiar with our lean staffing model, which relies on part-time editors and community volunteers. Some Laurel readers said they miss the more comprehensive coverage that used to be provided by the weekly Laurel Leader.
In terms of length of articles and broadness of coverage, you have us in a bind; some of you note that we can’t provide comprehensive news in monthly publications at our staffing levels. Some of you asked for in-depth, magazine-style articles on fewer topics. Others feel we should use our limited space to pack in more, shorter stories. Readers simultaneously would like us to step up to fill the gap in county news coverage and deepen our city coverage.
Like us, you want to see news that is representative of the diverse communities that get our newspapers delivered to their doors; you urge us not to forget about West Laurel, and you are interested in how we can reach Spanish-speaking readers.
We’ll keep trying to thread the needle on a tight budget, and we will be asking for your help to do it.
In the coming year, we hope to deepen and broaden our conversations with readers and community leaders about local news. We plan to keep delivering what you value, with a priority on news and information that gives broad access to civic engagement here in your community.
I couldn’t address every survey comment in this summary. Please know that I read them all, and that they are being shared with our assigning editors and board members in each community.
