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.
((Courtesy of Karel Ortiz-Tavarez)
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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