Craig Franklin:
At the end of the day, the customer is always right.
Here at your parish newspaper, we are continually looking for ways to “get it right” to improve the content and quality of The Jena Times Olla- Tullos-Urania Signal. As noted previously, there were many needed changes to be made in order to bring this newspaper into a more relevant presence across all dynamics of media. As we look to continue to improve, we are asking for our readers and advertisers to help us make some crucial decisions.
Many years ago, editors would simply make a trip to the local barber shop and sit around and talk with the patrons. The wives of those editors would talk at hair salons or while shopping in town. Today’s world is much different.
While I am out and about a good bit and have the opportunity to visit with many people throughout the week and hear their comments about the newspaper, it’s hard to get an accurate gauge on what is working and what is not, what is read and what is not and what is a favorite aspect and what is simply filling space. For this reason, we have decided to conduct a survey to help as we head into 2024.
The survey takes about five minutes to complete and is available on our website, www.thejenatimes. net or accessed through our social media accounts. The quick, easy 11-question survey will be a great service for us and we are asking for everyone to participate.
In this survey, nearly all of our regular content, articles, features, editorials, pages, etc. is available for participants to vote on the regularity of how much they read/view that particular item.
The survey will be open for voting until January 12 and it will be used as we evaluate all of our content to determine its value in this newspaper. To put it simply, this is your opportunity to anonymously tell us what you like and what you don’t like.
With our subscriptions continually increasing we want to do our best to present a newspaper filled with the content that is not just filling a page, but is something of interest that is read.
Advertisers desire the same goal. They want to be on pages that are read the most frequent so their ad gets noticed, translating to customers for their business. In the past, there have been certain pages that are read more than others. Our goal is to provide a newspaper where every page is read as the content attracts the attention of the reader and has their eyes naturally drawn to the ads on that page.
While the job of a local newspaper is not to win a popularity contest, we understand the difference between news that is reported to extra stories that are considered optional.
Our commitment to provide LaSalle Parish with a fair, unbiased news source concerning local issues and events will not change. But we are flexible when it comes to those extra contributing writers. If one author is not being read then we can replace with other authors who might be more appealing to our audience.
Again, the goal is to constantly improve this newspaper. There is no substitute for a newspaper – whether that be in a small community or a large city. Although the national media has certainly performed a disservice during recent years with misinformation, sensationalism and biased reporting, newspapers are nonetheless an important part of a free society.
Thomas Jefferson said it like this: “Were it left to me to decide if we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Richard Klugar said this: “Every time a newspaper dies, even a bad one, the country moves a little closer to authoritarianism.”
Please take the time and participate in our survey as we decide what changes need to be made for the future success of your community newspaper. We thank you for your assistance as we work hard to bring you the content you desire.
After all, the customer is always right.
