THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997 TAG: 9702130556
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Kay Tucker Addis, Editor and Dennis Hartig, managing editor
LENGTH: 57 lines
If you were the Editor, how would you improve The Virginian-Pilot?
How would you make it better for the 600,000 people who read it every week?
That's the challenge journalists at The Virginian-Pilot undertook three years ago. We wanted to see the world like you do. We wanted to know what kinds of stories you would put on the front page if you had to decide among hundreds each day. We wanted to know what issues and concerns, if given the chance to say, you would want our reporters to bring to the attention of Hampton Roads.
We wanted to know how you would cover health. Would your sports report focus on the NFL, the NBA and professional sports or college and high school sports? We wanted to know, in an age of CNN and MSNBC, how much space you'd give to national and international news and the kind you would publish. We wanted to be able to know the world like you do.
There's a simple aspiration behind these questions. We want to remake The Pilot into a newspaper that's unique to Hampton Roads and its people, a reflection of our times, our interests and our challenges - as individuals and as a community. In the last three years, more than 2,000 of you have taken your time in face-to-face meetings and in long interviews to tell us about your lives, your hopes for yourselves, your family and your community, and where you see The Pilot fitting in.
We're remaking The Pilot based on what you told us.
In the coming four days in this space, we'll explain to you how and why we're changing.
The improvements, to be introduced in two waves on Monday, Feb. 17, and Monday, March 3, are to the content of The Pilot, the news and information you'll be reading, what's highlighted and how it is edited. To help you navigate the improvements - more than 75 in all - we will publish guides in each section the first week to explain what has changed.
What will be different about the news report? Most of the changes are to our weekday editions. The improvements are in all five daily sections.
Some will be subtle, such as the expansion of our stock report. Some will be surprising, such as the re-location of the editorial pages to the local news section and the new Monday business report, Your Business.
On Monday, we unveil the improvements to the national and world news report, the Business news report and the Daily Break. On Monday, March 3, we launch the Sports report, featuring a new daily column called The Buzz. On the same day, we unveil dramatic changes to our local news report. It's been expanded and renamed Hampton Roads.
The improvements will add about five to six pages of news and information each weekday. We've added 20 reporters and editors.
We're increasing the benefits of reading The Pilot, but not the price. It won't cost you a penny more. For the 1,200 employees of The Virginian-Pilot, this is an exciting moment, a moment that's been three years in the making. In the coming four days, we'll tell you about the improvements that make us proud to be part of The Pilot. ILLUSTRATION: [Newspaper fronts]