Diane Kortus

Are newspapers the dinosaurs of our era, doomed to extinction because of the Internet and social media?

I’ve been asked that question countless times as the online world explodes with more news sites, postings and blogs than one can possibly imagine.

And my answer is absolutely not — especially not community newspapers like The Laker/Lutz News. So it’s tongue-in-cheek that we chose T-Rex as our theme to promote our papers at community events, marketing ourselves as the T-Rex of newspapers.

By now, hopefully, you realize your paper is much larger than its previous size. In August, we took a leap of faith and went from a tabloid size, to one that is the same size as a daily newspaper. That’s a 30 percent jump in page size.

To introduce our larger format to the business community, we produced a fun video that I also invite you to watch. It’s on YouTube, and you can find it at tinyurl.com/LakerXLVideo.

In our video’s opening scene, you’ll see vibrating glasses of water mimicking that iconic moment in “Jurassic Park” right before T-Rex burst into the scene.

And here’s why we want you to make the connection between T-Rex and The Laker/Lutz News:

• To give you a visual that our papers are bigger — the T-Rex of community newspapers. We’re bucking the industry trend of shrinking sizes and fewer pages.
• We’ve both been around a long time. Dinosaurs walked the Earth for 160 million years, and our papers have been in circulation longer than any other weekly newspaper in north suburban Tampa: The Lutz News since 1964, and The Laker since 1981.
• By making T-Rex our icon, we’re debunking the myth head-on that newspapers are on a path to extinction.

The Laker/Lutz News has never been financially stronger, and we’re not alone. Community newspapers everywhere are thriving because we give people news about their community that they look forward to reading, and cannot get anywhere else.

The Internet and social media have not, and will not, replace the relevancy of community newspapers. We too have an active Facebook page, and a growing website with more than 25,000 page views each month. While impressive, this still does not compare to the 64,000 people who read us each and every week.

Why is our printed product so popular? Industry research consistently reports that people prefer reading stories about their neighbors, community groups and upcoming events in a traditional printed newspaper they hold in their hands.

Since increasing our size, we have received overwhelming support from readers and advertisers. More stories in the paper mean it is a better read, and more readers result in more customers for our advertisers.

We have positioned The Laker/Lutz News to be the No. 1 source of local news, and the best way to market your business in north Hillsborough and Pasco counties.

So, to those of you who still think newspapers are dinosaurs, you are wrong.

We are here to stay. Extinction is not in our vocabulary.

Published October 29, 2014

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It’s less than a month before the November elections, and nowhere in The Laker/Lutz News will you find a political endorsement of any kind for any party, candidate or issue.

By design, our papers don’t have an editorial page spouting the opinions of my staff, guest columnists or myself.  In fact, our papers have not taken a political position on any topic or candidate in the 14 years I have owned the papers.

Which is why I am always surprised to receive comments or emails from readers asserting that our news coverage is party to the “liberal media bias” or, as a recent writer wrote, of being a “Republican rag.”

So I thought I’d go on record and make it clear that as owner of The Laker/Lutz News, I do not view the papers as a mouthpiece pushing causes and candidates that I personally endorse.

I never direct my staff to cover a political candidate or controversial issue, nor do I ask them to write a story with any political slant or pre-determined outcome. It makes no difference to my reporters whether I’m Democrat, Republican or independent; pro-growth or environmentalist; pro-life or pro-choice; member of the National Rifle Association or supporter of the anti-gun lobby; Christian, Jewish or Muslim.

My only agenda is to make sure my editorial staff writes about topics you want to read about. To give you stories about your neighbors and community that make you proud to call Pasco and north Hillsborough counties your home.

Perhaps because we do not stake out political positions, we receive few letters to the editor. And the authors of the emails we get charging us as being too liberal or too conservative almost never provide their name and phone number.

This is not to say, however, that we don’t hear from our readers. We do. Just about every week we receive accolades from people telling us how much they appreciate our objective news coverage and what a difference it makes to their organization.

Here’s a recent example from Jennifer Medeiros, media manager of Girl Scouts of West Central Florida:

“I just wanted to take a moment and thank you, on behalf of Girl Scouts of West Central Florida, for all your help spreading the word about our need for Girl Scout volunteers. The Laker has gone above and beyond by helping us share this need all summer (since the end of May!) and now through the fall — we could not be more grateful!

“It’s because of news outlets like The Laker that we’re able to share our needs with the community, and generate the awareness we need to continue building girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place.”

This email makes me incredibly proud — I even admit to goose bumps when my staff forwarded Jennifer’s email to me. And I’m proud to report we’re getting more comments like this since increasing the size of our paper in August.

Our new format is 30 percent bigger, which obviously gives us more room for more stories. But it’s our new B Section that gives us a second front page that really is getting attention.

Here’s what the co-owner of Haslam’s Book Store, Ray Hinst, wrote after B.C. Manion profiled this Tampa Bay institution on the front of a recent B Section:

“What a terrific article, B.C.!  Photos look great, the quotes exact, and the volume of information you massaged into the narrative is simply outstanding. You have probably offered more insights into the book business than many folks who are doing it full time.

“Thank you for considering us and exercising such expertise in the process. Again, the paper is lucky to have you.”

I believe The Laker/Lutz News is a reflection of the communities we serve. Letters like these tell the story of the good people we write about who want the most for their neighbors and neighborhoods.

So I hope you don’t think it self-serving to share some of these letters with you in a new section we’re starting called “Noteworthy … Kudos From Our Readers.”

Our first “Noteworthy” follows this column (you can find it online in our e-edition by clicking here). We invite you to send us your comments on stories that move you, and encourage you to be on the lookout for this new feature so you, too, can be proud of the difference your community paper makes in the lives of your neighbors.

Published October 15, 2014

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It’s been just over a month — five issues — since The Laker/Lutz News became a bigger newspaper. And reaction from our readers has been overwhelmingly positive.

Yes, we’ve received a few calls from people complaining that our new size is cumbersome to hold while drinking a cup of coffee. But that’s truly the only complaint we’ve received.

The most common comment we hear is that our larger format makes us a “real newspaper,” apparently because we’re now the same size as a daily newspaper.

That perception has surprised us.

From our perspective, we’ve always been a real newspaper because we employ real journalists who write balanced stories about people and news in our community. We’re real because we publish every Wednesday without fail, and spend lots of money delivering our free paper to 30,000 homes, and at more than 300 newspaper stands, so you can read us every week.

It reminds me of that old adage, that perception often is more important than reality. So I suppose that we should be happy by the perception that our new size makes us more real, even though my staff and I thought we always were real.

I imagine this must be how Pinocchio felt when he finally became a real boy.

Just so you know, the content of The Laker/Lutz News has not changed with our larger size. We have the same reporters writing the same types of stories about our community.

What’s changed is our design staff now has more room to place stories, create bigger headlines, and use bigger photos and more graphics. We’re one of few newspapers in the state to have color on every page — even our classified pages — so our artists have more to work with now that we’re bigger and more colorful.

Our bigger size also gives us space for more stories. This week, for example, Michael Murillo is launching a new feature, “On the Cheap.” His first column tells you about a super deal at the beautifully renovated Capitol Theatre in Clearwater that sounds like great fun for families or couples. Michael will be writing about inexpensive things to do on a regular basis to help you plan your weekend.

Our bigger size also allows us to enhance the presentation of other features we’ve been publishing for some time. For example, B.C. Manion’s monthly column, “Worth The Trip,” is now profiled on the front page of our new B section. Don’t miss this week’s story about Haslam’s Book Store in St. Petersburg — an amazing place for book lovers and those just looking for someplace new to explore.

Our other two monthly columns, “Getting to Know You,” by Michael Hinman, and another column by Michael Murillo, “Presenting the Past,” are published the other two weeks of the month.

Our goal is to give you a special feature to look forward to every week, in addition to  our usual news and feature stories. These first-person columns by my staff give our papers a unique voice, and lets you get to know our writers on a more personal level.

The other big change we hope you’ve noticed is our bigger ads. Because our page size is taller, our ad sizes are also bigger — actually 30 percent bigger. This gives our advertisers more space to tell you about their products and services.

At five weeks in, I guess you could say we couldn’t be happier with the changes we’ve made to make The Laker/Lutz News bigger and better. The positive comments we’ve heard from readers, and the support we’ve received from our business community, encourages us to continue to work hard to bring you the best community newspaper we can.

Published September 3, 2014

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Unless you’re reading this column online, by now you should have realized that something big is different about this week’s paper.

Really big.

We are 6 inches longer, or 25 percent bigger, than we were last week. This makes us the same size as most daily newspapers, and gives you two sections of the paper instead of one.

We’ve been working on this transition since May, so today is a big day for my staff and me. We are thrilled with how our new paper looks and feels, and hope you are too.

Converting to a larger size has touched just about everything we do, from the size of our ads to the size of the plastic bags we use to deliver your paper. It’s been more work, and has affected more aspects of our business, than we ever imagined.

But we’ve never doubted our decision to go bigger. We truly believe this is the best way to meet the changing needs of our readers and advertisers.

There are many reasons behind the change that we’ve talked about in promotional ads and in our news columns for the past month. But the biggest one is a larger paper gives us more space to print local stories for you and your family.

Becoming the same size as a daily also communicates that we’re no long the “little community paper” that some people may perceive, but rather a “real newspaper” to be taken seriously.

We’ve stepped up our game to fill the void left by the two daily newspapers in our market — The Tampa Bay Times and The Tampa Tribune — which have steadily cut back their local news coverage and frequency of their regional sections in Pasco and north Hillsborough counties. These big dailies once had neighborhood news sections they published seven days a week. As they scaled back their news staffs, their regional editions dwindled from seven days a week, to five, to three and now just once or twice a week.

We have picked up their slack by expanding The Laker/Lutz News, both in size and content. We still give you the human interest stories you’ve always loved, but we’ve increased our coverage of growth and development, new and expanding businesses, public and private education, and city and county government.

There’s no doubt that size does matter and bigger is better — at least when it comes to newspapers in the communities we serve in Lutz, Odessa, Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel, Zephyrhills and Dade City.

Going bigger has energized my employees and the business community that supports us like nothing before. And we’re confident our new size also will inspire our readers and make you more loyal than ever to The Laker/Lutz News.

Please let us know what you think of our new size. We’re betting the only complaint we’ll hear is the larger size is harder to hold when drinking a cup of coffee and reading your paper Wednesday morning.

Published August 6, 2014

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In the past few months I have used my column to boast about our recent industry audit, which reports that our newspapers have more readers than ever before.

Today I want to tell you why that is. But first, a brief recap.

According to this statistically valid research, The Laker/Lutz News is read by 79 percent of households in Lutz, Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills — or more than 64,000 people every week.

This is a readership increase of 10 percentage points in the past five years — an achievement we are quite proud of, especially when considering most newspapers are reporting fewer readers, reducing frequency, shrinking in size, or being discontinued altogether.

So, what are we doing different here at The Laker/Lutz News to buck those downward trends?

It comes down to three things.

1. In our audit, we added questions that asked readers what types of news and stories they wanted to read in their community paper.

2. We accepted the survey results as fact and began focusing more on topics readers ranked as most important.

3. We hired additional professional journalists who are experienced reporters, excellent writers and passionate about community journalism.

It’s this third element I want to write about today.

After I became publisher in 2009, it took me a while to learn the importance of hiring the best reporters that I could find. I learned nothing is more important than experience and credibility when it comes to giving readers well-written, relevant stories that will engage them and keep them reading the paper.

Good writing and fair reporting builds readership and loyalty because readers know they can trust what they read in our papers because our stories are accurate, balanced and relevant to their interests.

Our journalists were accomplished writers and editors long before they joined The Laker/Lutz News. They know how to identify stories about interesting people and groups, how to pick through public meeting agendas to find stories buried between government hype, and perhaps most importantly, they know how to write well.

Frankly, it is a bit unusual for a newspaper our size to have such accomplished journalists. So let me tell you a little about our team, beginning with Michael Hinman.

Michael joined us last year as news editor. He has helped us add more serious hard and breaking news to our mix, and has brought daily news postings to our website.

His background includes five years writing for community sections of The Tampa Tribune, including editor of the Temple Terrace News before it was shuttered. More recently, Michael was a real estate reporter at the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

He first started covering Pasco County in 1997 when he was hired as a reporter for the Zephyrhills News, and later became its editor.

The quality of his work received recognition over the weekend in Coral Gables, where Michael picked up two prestigious statewide journalism awards from the Florida Press Association.

He received first place in best local government coverage for his outstanding coverage of the proposed elevated toll road along the State Road 54/56 corridor. He also took top honors in general news about a town hall last year hosted by U.S. Rep Gus Bilirakis, bringing to light major problems with flood insurance in our county.

Next is Community Editor B.C. Manion, whose byline has graced our pages for four years. She is our most experienced journalist, coming to us after 23 years with The Tampa Tribune, where she covered everything from city government to schools to regional planning.

But her love is writing about interesting people, organizations and places, and that’s mostly what she does for us. B.C. has been the leader of our editorial team as we’ve worked hard to improve the quality and depth of our stories.

B.C has received 11 awards from Florida Press Association while on our staff, and is one of the most respected journalists in Tampa Bay.

Michael Murillo joined us as a freelance writer last summer. We liked his work so much that he became an employee in the fall, writing most of our sports stories and also feature stories about people and things to do.

Michael also wrote editorials for the Tribune and spent many years as a reporter for local community newspapers. His wacky sense of humor makes him fun to work with, and his love for community journalism is contagious.

Mary Rathman is the reason our pages rarely have a grammatical mistake or typo. She scours our sentences, looking for any misplaced comma or misspelled word. She has a sign on her desk that says, “I am silently correcting your grammar,” and indeed, she is.

Besides proofing our work, Mary compiles three columns that provide useful information for our readers: What’s Happening, Health Notes and Chalk Talk. Mary is a respected and well-liked employee, who started working here more than 10 years ago. She also has served the company in other roles before using her talents to assist our editorial team.

While our editorial team is dedicated to delivering a newspaper and website that our readers can turn to for pertinent information and lively stories, we know that much of our best work begins with ideas we get from readers like you.

If you have an idea you’d like to share, please call (813) 909-2800, or email us at .

Published July 16, 2014

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The “pay it forward” concept isn’t a new one; indeed some sources say it dates back to the days of ancient Greece.

But it has a much more immediate meaning for me.

I live in Land O’ Lakes in the Lakeshore Ranch community. My children are grown and I’m gone a lot for work and travel. Because of that, I’ve met just a few neighbors since moving here a year ago.

I’m content here with my 9-year-old dog, Jonas, a handsome Airedale terrier. He is a dear dog, and just a month ago, he completed chemotherapy treatments for a cancer common in large dogs.

After a rough few months of surgery and then chemo, Jonas is doing amazingly well now.

So, imagine my panic when a few days after his final chemo treatment, Jonas went missing.

When I left in the morning, I was running late for a breakfast meeting and I raced out of my house without realizing that I’d left the sliding glass door wide open to my backyard. After breakfast, I dropped by my house before heading to work to check on Jonas.

I came in through the garage door and immediately saw the open sliding glass door. As soon as I saw that, I knew that Jonas was gone.

Fear set in as I looked into my backyard, which borders on a lake. The yard doesn’t have a fence, and I’ve seen gators in the lake. To make things worse, I had taken off Jonas’ collar before I left. So, even if anyone found Jonas, they wouldn’t know where to call.

I had no idea where to look first. Jonas had a two-hour head start.

I drove up and down the streets of my neighborhood, calling out for Jonas. A couple colleagues came out to help in the search.

I showed a picture of Jonas to the people I saw and asked them to call me if they found him.

When the search turned up empty after an hour, I was feeling frantic.

Then, Suzanne Beauchaine, a co-worker and fellow dog owner, decided to walk my street again, this time carrying a leash. About halfway down the block a woman saw Suzanne holding the leash and asked if was looking for a dog.

It turns out that another neighbor, Diana Gonzalez, had seen Jonas wandering in her backyard not long after I had left home, and had put him in her lanai. Diana took a picture of Jonas and posted it on her Facebook page, asking friends if anyone knew who owned the dog.

Within minutes, a neighbor told Diana said she knew where the dog lived, and Diana left a note on my door, letting me know she had found him. I didn’t see that note, though, because I’d gone into my house through the garage.

This story’s happy ending relates back to the concept of paying it forward. When I was talking to Diana after I got Jonas back, she told me her husband initially didn’t want her to get involved because Jonas is a large dog and he wasn’t wearing tags.

Understandably, Diana’s husband was concerned for her safety.

But Diana said seeing Jonas reminded her of an occasion when her dog, Rocky, a 13-year-old golden mix, was lost shortly after they moved to Lakeshore Ranch.

“We were out of town and my sister was taking care of Rocky when he wandered off,” Diana recalls. “She was looking for Rocky and we were so worried. Then a neighbor saw her searching and told her that another neighbor had put Rocky in her lanai.”

So, when Diana saw Jonas, she told her husband it was their turn to “pay it forward” for someone else.

To those of you who are pet owners, I’m sure you realize how grateful I am to the Gonzalez family for their kindness. They protected my pet, who I nearly lost to illness, and then nearly lost again because I forgot to close the door.

Now, Jonas is back where he belongs.

And, the power of paying it forward lives on.

Published June 11, 2014

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