Changes on the way for View papers
Las Vegas Review-Journal staffers spend much of their time during any week reporting on the little things that sometimes produce big results — the extraordinary efforts of ordinary people. Such as last week's story on Carolyn Wood, who, at the age of 84, still leads dance classes five days a week at the West Flamingo Senior Center in Las Vegas. Or Faith Lutheran graduate Ismael King, who built a board game app for smartphones based on math.
Those stories and many more are found tucked inside the R-J's Thursday edition in our View papers. Depending on where subscribers live, they receive a customized weekly paper that revolves around people and events in specific areas — Henderson, Southwest, Summerlin Area, North or East Valley. The story on Wood was in the Southwest View zone, which includes Southern Highlands, Mountain's Edge, Rhodes Ranch and Spring Valley. The feature on King, now a sophomore at the University of Toronto, was published in the Summerlin Area View.
View Editor Lisa Valentine and her staff have been brainstorming changes for the View papers this fall in order to attract more readers. We ran some of the staff's ideas by our Reader Advisory Board the other day. The panel liked some and gave a thumbs-down to others.
Most, for example, really like the tabloid format of the View because it makes that section stand apart from the rest of the R-J. All enjoy poring over the crime map, a weekly summary of police calls in their zone.
That's not all. They like the feel-good stories and the restaurant content (features and advertisements).
Beginning in January, we will put more pages in the View papers to accommodate more news and features, such as:
More school news. With 350-plus schools in Clark County, we could easily fill up all the zones every week with news from the classroom. We're not going to do that, but we're going to give you more of it.
More government news. We'll try to do more to localize the actions of the Clark County Commission and the three municipalities for residents in each zone.
More people news. Think you have a newsworthy item about yourself or someone you know? Email news and photos to Valentine (lvalentine@viewnews.com) or Anne Marie King (aking@viewnews.com). If we can't use it, we'll let you know why, but always expect to get a response.
More "hard" news. We're going to try to gather more specific news about crimes in the specific zones, based on feedback from the advisory panel.
Going hyperlocal. Some of our zones seem too large, they said. The content is too general, not local enough. This is a tough one, but Valentine and her staff will try to figure out how to make the stories more relevant to readers in each zone.
Going less hyperlocal on restaurants. What? Seems like a contradiction, I know, but when it comes to restaurants, readers are willing to expand their definition of local. We'll try to include two "Picks of the Week" options, beginning in a few weeks.
We'll scale back on features that aren't as well-received, like weekly health stories and features with a valleywide focus, in favor of more content focusing on specific zones.
The meeting with the advisory board provided some clarity for Valentine, who said, "One of the overriding themes of the conversation we had was that they are most interested in seeing more local news, specifically news that is relevant to their part of the valley. Freeing up space in the print product for more local content is definitely going to be a priority for me moving into 2016. I want to make sure the bulk of our resources is spent focusing on providing the kind of local content that (readers) will be able to find only in the Views."
Let us know what you think of the changes, beginning in January.
— Michael Hengel (mhengel@reviewjournal.com) is editor of the Review-Journal. He can be reached at 702-387-2906. Follow him on Twitter: @mhengel.
