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Tuesday, February 02, 2010 8:16 PM

Keep yourself informed by reading the newspaper

We all can learn a little bit about a little bit on radio, TV and even at the neighborhood coffee shop, but where do you go when you want to know it all?

For more than a century, and still today, people turn to newspapers to learn about their community, their weather, their friends, neighbors, businesses, sports, classified ads and even where the bargains are.

 Admit it. We all like to know it all.

The main difference today is we want to know it immediately. Newspapers are answering that call, too. Oh sure, some people think they get their news from the Internet — that is, until they look again and see the news came from a newspaper.

That’s why newspapers operate the best and heaviest used Web sites — including The Ottawa Herald. Last month more than 31,000 unique visitors sought news, photos, obituaries, crime reports, videos, classified ads and more from The Ottawa Herald in its various forms online, including their cell phones. Another 12,000 read the same content and more in print. Why do they turn to the newspaper? Because they want to know it all.

 It isn’t just about the who, what, when, where, why and how, but also “what does it mean to me?” We cover that angle, too. While we can’t be everywhere, we do our best to focus on the news people need to know.

 The Herald goes beyond the rip and read mentality of radio, beyond the sensationalism of TV’s national news and works to compile the news our readers need, in fact, to know it all.  Some learn about the news from social-networking sites like Facebook. Others are alerted through RSS feeds and tweets on Twitter to their cell phones or computers.

Some people like e-newsletters. We have those, too. Whatever medium readers like are within our capability, but our print subscribers get the best of everything. In the future, they’ll receive even more with special online content only for subscribers.

 What matters most to you? During the next year, we’ll be working hard to help each of you become a “know-it-all” because an informed populace is a better populace.

Let me know what you want, and we’ll do what we can to cover it in the way only a newspaper can cover it. It isn’t just about telling you what-happened-where, but we want to help you understand and comprehend the context and how it will affect you.

The long-standing nature of the newspaper is because, in large part, of its continued indispensability to readers who depend on it to tell them the news they need and want to know. The newspaper is the community’s diary of the people and events that shaped its existence.

Know it. All. Read a newspaper.

Of course, you already knew that. You’re reading a newspaper.



— Jeanny Sharp,

editor and publisher

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