Shifting the opinion side opens the way to corporate journalism
Happy New Year. And welcome to the center of the political universe in 2022 – Pennsylvania.
With this in mind, I wanted to take some time to let readers know how and why we will continue to shift the focus on our opinion pages to content that encourages conversation at the kitchen table. And explain why we will post opinion content in fewer days.
The idealistic, and frankly, naive goal would be to help people rationally discuss topics, candidates, and the future. Despite this seemingly impossible task given the divided state of our country, this will still be our goal to the extent that it is possible.
Some of you will stop reading after this next set of bullet points, but I’ll go ahead anyway and cause my eyes to roll and fear.
Our baseline for editing, writing, and curating these pages is:
The election was not stolen from anyone. No credible evidence has emerged to make this believable. And with the number of persistent investigative journalists, if something so sinister happened it would have been covered with a lot of noise. This theory had its many days in court. It lost. Repeated.
So don’t even send letters attacking the January 6th narrative, they won’t get inside.
Joe Biden is the legitimate president. Just like Donald Trump was the legitimate 45th President. Like the other 44 before.
Voting is more important than ever in this country. Regardless of the parameters of when, where and how we vote this year, people have to participate.
The counting of the ballot papers must be highly transparent. We have to trust the results and move on with our lives.
All people are created equal.
What happened in the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 is unacceptable. This is not what democracy looks like, and it is not a legacy for our children to carry on.
To practice the kind of corporate journalism we want to share this important year, we need to create the time and space for our team to do the most meaningful work they can. That’s the only reason to reduce opinion pages to two days a week. There is nothing more to read into this decision.
Viewpoints director John Anastasi will have a more focused role in curating and encouraging local residents to write and speak on key topics. He will also work with Erie-based colleague Lisa Thompson on content on national topics. They will also be putting together a Sunday print page that will focus on national politics and give context to our local offerings.
We expect you will see far fewer syndicated and national plays. We will focus on local letters to the editor and guest opinions and, if necessary, supplement them with regional or supraregional voices. We will offer opinion content on Sundays and Wednesdays.
Anastasi and Thompson will also help bring local and statewide candidates to the table so readers can hear from them before the election. This can be live or recorded interviews, guest columns, and maybe even podcasts. We will endeavor to reach as many listeners as possible in such an important political year.
Anastasi and Thompson will also write more analytical posts, breaking down local and statewide issues, not necessarily with their opinions, but with an eye to helping readers understand where multiple pages on a particular topic or topic might be coming from. If the subjects matter enough they could easily run our websites and print front pages.
I understand that many print readers will complain about this decision. A lot of the editors I work with have given a lot of thought. We believe this is the best course to improve on the strong local journalism that readers are right to ask for their subscription dollars.
Shane Fitzgerald is the editor-in-chief of the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer and state editor of 14 Pennsylvania publications on the USA Today Network. He can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].
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