New editorial team brings more local news and community stories
By Diane Kortus
Publisher
When I became publisher of The Laker and Lutz News last July, one of my staff’s first goals was to give readers more stories about people, community groups, local businesses and recreational sports.
We wanted stories that readers would not find in the daily papers or anywhere else. We believed our stories should make readers feel good about their community and be reflective of the people living in their neighborhoods. We wanted stories that were informative and useful to people living here.
One of the first changes we made was to reduce our coverage of crime news, especially crime that occurred in outlying areas. We saw no purpose in reporting on incidents in Hudson, Lacoochee and north Tampa —areas where we had few readers.
By comparison, there was little crime to report in our primary coverage areas of Lutz, Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills. We still cover pubic safety, but only if it happens in our readership area, and only if we can report it differently. Local TV news, radio and daily newspapers report crime news aggressively and we didn’t want to repeat this same news in our community papers.
Another decision we made early on was to discontinue obituaries. Like classifieds, obituaries have migrated to the Internet because of the immediate need people have to learn about someone’s death and memorial service. Because we publish only once a week, we were publishing obituaries with services that had already happened.
Eliminating crime briefs and obituaries freed up a lot of space in our papers to publish stories we cover best — grassroots news that is found deep within our neighborhoods.
Stories about people who make a difference, clubs that help others, local arts and entertainment events, stories about student achievements, profiles on churches and their outreach programs, profiles about people behind our businesses, prep sports that focus more on people than scores, and adding recreational sports like kickball, golf and adult soccer.
We began to implement these changes and by the first of the year wanted to accelerate our plan to give readers more diverse and better-written stories.
We were fortunate to find two experienced journalists living in the heart of our readership area who hold the same vision for community journalism. Sarah Whitman and Suzanne Schmidt joined our staff last week after several years at The Tampa Tribune.
Sarah is heading up our news operation as senior staff writer. A USF graduate, she most recently wrote stories about northeast Hillsborough County for The Tribune.
For us, Sarah is focusing on news from Lutz and Land O’ Lakes, as well as stories about people, community organizations and churches throughout our coverage area.
Suzanne Schmidt is a name many readers may recognize. She wrote for In The Loop, The Tribune’s weekly paper in central Pasco, until it folded last year. Suzanne is a graduate of Southern Illinois University and is focusing on news from Wesley Chapel and writing about schools and businesses for all coverage areas.
In January, Kyle LoJacono became a full-time writer covering sports and news from Zephyrhills. A 2009 graduate of Florida State University, Kyle started with us last summer as a part-time sports writer.
Rounding out our team is editorial assistant Mary Rathman, a talented and versatile employee who is described by her colleagues as “the glue who holds us all together.”
With so much new talent in our newsroom, last week was a very good week for our company.
And it was an even better week for Suzanne Schmidt. Not only did she land a full-time journalism job at a paper just 15 minutes from her Land O’ Lakes home, but she also became engaged to her boyfriend of two years, David Jackson.
Our congratulations to Suzanne as she begins her journey as a reporter for Community News Publications, as well as that of a future bride
