Change is hard, but also good

Every so often, a newspaper needs to remake itself. It needs to be

responsive to changing times and changing readership.

Change is hard; believe me, we all know. We’re going through a lot

of it here in the Daily Pilot newsroom with a new computer system and

new employees.

As you pick up your paper today, you will also see some changes;

as usual, we hope they are for the better.

To begin with, we have a new look. Much of that is thanks to the

hard work and vision of our art director, Joey Santos. Aside from

different type styles, what you also see today on the front page is

called a “two-box look.”

The first box, you’ll notice, surrounds what we call our

centerpiece story; today it’s the one on the mariachi band at the

Orange County Fair.

That box can and will change in size and placement from day to day

but will always be the main anchor for the page.

The second box contains our At A Glance feature. This will give

you a glimpse at the stories that are running inside the paper that

day.

Another element is the use of bold-face type to highlight the top

news story of the day.

And at the top, while it has changed in appearance, we continue to

have our legendary sailboat within our Daily Pilot logo.

Inside the paper, there will be other changes, as well.

Today begins our weekly business section, called Your Work Week.

For the better part of the last decade, the Daily Pilot has not

had a business section of more than one page or a reporter covering

it.

This new section will present news and features on local

businesses, the popular Best Buys column by Greer Wylder and quick

review of local lunch spots called Power Lunch.

There will also be columns by local business leaders as well as

our regular feature called Working, a snapshot of someone with an odd

job, and another feature called Business Spotlight, which will be a

quick look at a local merchant or company.

Oh yeah, Christine Carrillo will be our business beat reporter.

She can be reached at (949) 574-4298.

Starting Tuesday, we will increase the frequency of our

ever-popular Community Forum pages. The letters and commentary on

community issues will run every day except Monday, with the same

two-page spread on Sundays.

Starting Thursday, we will launch a weekly page called Politics

that will offer inside reports and features on elected officials,

political parties and groups.

The page will feature a weekly column by Managing Editor S.J. Cahn

called Politics Aside and a roundup of issues and stories by reporter

Paul Clinton called Political Landscape.

The other major change to the paper is the move of the Saturday

Best Buy column to Fridays, giving shoppers an extra day to plan for

those weekend sales.

As I said before, change can be hard to swallow. So as you look

over today’s paper, I encourage you to soak it in and think about it

a few minutes, and if you just can’t stand it any longer and you want

to vent, let me give you a few phone numbers to do so.

First is our Readers Hotline at 949-642-6086. You can leave a

message there and it will be passed on to me by day’s end. If you

want a live person to talk with, you can call S.J. Cahn at

949-574-4233 or City Editor James Meier at 949-764-4324 or you always

can contact me at the phone number or e-mail below. Leave a message

if I’m not in and I’ll call you back as soon as possible.

Of course, you can always e-mail us at dailypilot@latimes.com.

I look forward to hearing

from you and hope you enjoy

the changes we have made to your hometown newspaper.

* TONY DODERO is the editor.

His column appears on Mondays.

If you have story ideas or concerns about news coverage please

send messages either via e-mail to tony.dodero@latimes.com or

by phone at 949-574-4258.