It's often scary to realize how quickly time passes. It seems a lot less than two years ago that I was composing a commentary to commemorate the River Cities' Reader's 300th issue. And the really frightening thing is that when I went back to look at what I wrote then, I had to trash my plans for this piece; I would have been repeating myself, in some cases nearly word-for-word. (I am nothing if not consistent.)
Back then, I wrote: "One of the interesting things about alternative weekly papers is that, no matter how old they get, they still carry the spirits, interests, and concerns of their founders."
That remains true today, but it overlooks a crucial point: Fundamentally, the paper belongs to you.
Yes, credit for the Reader's longevity, vision, and quality must go to the its founders and guiding forces, Publisher Todd McGreevy and Editor Kathleen McCarthy (who've been with the paper since its inception more than nine years ago), as well as the dedicated people who've worked and written for the paper over the course of nearly a decade.
But there's a reason the paper bears the name River Cities' Reader: We've reached this milestone because thousands of people in the Quad Cities pick up and read the paper each week. If we cease to be relevant and interesting, we'll lose the community's support, and the paper will fold. We are financially sustained by our advertisers, but those businesses and organizations are sustained by our readers.
As the River Cities' Reader celebrates its 400th issue this week, we thought it would be a good idea to give you a peek into what we have planned in the coming weeks, months, and year. This isn't merely self-promotion; our hope is that you - our readers - will continue to play an important role in what the Reader becomes, and help us stay focused on the issues important to you.
Beyond that, we're telling you our goals and plans because we want you to keep an eye on us, to act as our watchdog. Accountability is an ever-present theme in our editorial content, whether we're writing about local government or arts organizations. We demand that public officials do what they say they're going to do, and that they're processes are sound. It's important that we apply the same standards to this paper - that we be accountable to our readers.
Fortunately, when it comes to figuring out where we want to go and grow, we're not driving blind. Our readers are loyal, vocal, and frank, and they let us know what they like and don't like in conversations, letters to the editor, and phone calls.
In addition, over the summer and fall, we undertook an extensive reader survey, asking our audience not only questions about their vital statistics and shopping habits but about what they read in the paper and would like to see more of. We also plan on assembling a focus group in the near future for casual but in-depth discussions about the River Cities' Reader.
To give you some sense of the response to our reader survey, nearly 60 percent of our readers "always" or "regularly" read the City Shorts column, and more than 80 percent of readers "always" or "regularly" read news stories. At the other end of the spectrum, less than 35 percent of readers "always" or "regularly" check out the syndicated Red Meat cartoon. Live music, concerts, and events and festivals are the most popular sections of our arts-and-entertainment calendar.
One of the great things to come out of the survey process was finding out that we know our audience pretty well. More than 30 percent of readers who responded to the survey said they wanted more humor, more arts features, more columns, and more personality-profile stories. We nodded our heads in agreement, because those are some of the same things we've been wanting to do for a long time.
Yet adding lighter fare doesn't mean going soft. We're not talking about bringing in those things at the expense of hard-hitting news coverage or incisive arts analysis; the growth of the River Cities' Reader allows us to offer new features without taking away from what you've come to expect from us. Our ad sales have continued to grow - despite the economy - and our page count has steadily moved upward. This gives us the luxury of avoiding hard choices; instead of replacing one element you see in the paper with another, we can give you more, more, and more.
And we have.
In the past year, we've added regular theatre reviews and feature stories, a weekly column on Illinois politics, a regular local cartoon from T.S. Hart, and a series of stories on new developments in Quad Cities-area downtowns. We've beefed up our music coverage, and added the Dish restaurant guide.
We've seen growth in other areas, too. Our circulation has climbed to approximately 17,000 papers, meaning that the River Cities' Reader is now available in more locations than ever before. We've improved the search functions on our Web site, expanded our archives, and added a form to submit classified ads online.
And we're excited about the future. For example, we're planning a major investigative-journalism piece for the first quarter of 2003.
Even as we add new content to the paper, we know that even our longtime features can be improved. By the end of the year, we will have undertaken a feature-by-feature evaluation of the paper, discussing how we can maintain our strengths while making each element more useful, interesting, and entertaining. This will include re-vamping our arts-and-entertainment calendar so that it is easier to navigate while remaining as comprehensive as possible.
And we also have long-standing goals that we'll keep working on, including striking a balance between Illinois and Iowa news, feature, and arts coverage.
Our challenge will continue to be providing our readers with the best content possible with our limited resources. The Reader employs six people full-time, one person part-time, several freelance writers, and a handful of independent contractors who bring the paper from our office to wherever you pick it up. Only two full-time employees write for every issue.
We typically have 24 pages, and there's simply too much we want to write about. Unlike daily papers or many alternative weeklies, we rarely use copy from wire services. The list of articles we want to do overwhelms the time and space available to do them justice.
That will always be a problem, whether we're 24 pages or 48. There are so many great stories that we want to tell you.
Back then, I wrote: "One of the interesting things about alternative weekly papers is that, no matter how old they get, they still carry the spirits, interests, and concerns of their founders."
That remains true today, but it overlooks a crucial point: Fundamentally, the paper belongs to you.
Yes, credit for the Reader's longevity, vision, and quality must go to the its founders and guiding forces, Publisher Todd McGreevy and Editor Kathleen McCarthy (who've been with the paper since its inception more than nine years ago), as well as the dedicated people who've worked and written for the paper over the course of nearly a decade.
But there's a reason the paper bears the name River Cities' Reader: We've reached this milestone because thousands of people in the Quad Cities pick up and read the paper each week. If we cease to be relevant and interesting, we'll lose the community's support, and the paper will fold. We are financially sustained by our advertisers, but those businesses and organizations are sustained by our readers.
As the River Cities' Reader celebrates its 400th issue this week, we thought it would be a good idea to give you a peek into what we have planned in the coming weeks, months, and year. This isn't merely self-promotion; our hope is that you - our readers - will continue to play an important role in what the Reader becomes, and help us stay focused on the issues important to you.
Beyond that, we're telling you our goals and plans because we want you to keep an eye on us, to act as our watchdog. Accountability is an ever-present theme in our editorial content, whether we're writing about local government or arts organizations. We demand that public officials do what they say they're going to do, and that they're processes are sound. It's important that we apply the same standards to this paper - that we be accountable to our readers.
Fortunately, when it comes to figuring out where we want to go and grow, we're not driving blind. Our readers are loyal, vocal, and frank, and they let us know what they like and don't like in conversations, letters to the editor, and phone calls.
In addition, over the summer and fall, we undertook an extensive reader survey, asking our audience not only questions about their vital statistics and shopping habits but about what they read in the paper and would like to see more of. We also plan on assembling a focus group in the near future for casual but in-depth discussions about the River Cities' Reader.
To give you some sense of the response to our reader survey, nearly 60 percent of our readers "always" or "regularly" read the City Shorts column, and more than 80 percent of readers "always" or "regularly" read news stories. At the other end of the spectrum, less than 35 percent of readers "always" or "regularly" check out the syndicated Red Meat cartoon. Live music, concerts, and events and festivals are the most popular sections of our arts-and-entertainment calendar.
One of the great things to come out of the survey process was finding out that we know our audience pretty well. More than 30 percent of readers who responded to the survey said they wanted more humor, more arts features, more columns, and more personality-profile stories. We nodded our heads in agreement, because those are some of the same things we've been wanting to do for a long time.
Yet adding lighter fare doesn't mean going soft. We're not talking about bringing in those things at the expense of hard-hitting news coverage or incisive arts analysis; the growth of the River Cities' Reader allows us to offer new features without taking away from what you've come to expect from us. Our ad sales have continued to grow - despite the economy - and our page count has steadily moved upward. This gives us the luxury of avoiding hard choices; instead of replacing one element you see in the paper with another, we can give you more, more, and more.
And we have.
In the past year, we've added regular theatre reviews and feature stories, a weekly column on Illinois politics, a regular local cartoon from T.S. Hart, and a series of stories on new developments in Quad Cities-area downtowns. We've beefed up our music coverage, and added the Dish restaurant guide.
We've seen growth in other areas, too. Our circulation has climbed to approximately 17,000 papers, meaning that the River Cities' Reader is now available in more locations than ever before. We've improved the search functions on our Web site, expanded our archives, and added a form to submit classified ads online.
And we're excited about the future. For example, we're planning a major investigative-journalism piece for the first quarter of 2003.
Even as we add new content to the paper, we know that even our longtime features can be improved. By the end of the year, we will have undertaken a feature-by-feature evaluation of the paper, discussing how we can maintain our strengths while making each element more useful, interesting, and entertaining. This will include re-vamping our arts-and-entertainment calendar so that it is easier to navigate while remaining as comprehensive as possible.
And we also have long-standing goals that we'll keep working on, including striking a balance between Illinois and Iowa news, feature, and arts coverage.
Our challenge will continue to be providing our readers with the best content possible with our limited resources. The Reader employs six people full-time, one person part-time, several freelance writers, and a handful of independent contractors who bring the paper from our office to wherever you pick it up. Only two full-time employees write for every issue.
We typically have 24 pages, and there's simply too much we want to write about. Unlike daily papers or many alternative weeklies, we rarely use copy from wire services. The list of articles we want to do overwhelms the time and space available to do them justice.
That will always be a problem, whether we're 24 pages or 48. There are so many great stories that we want to tell you.
