WORKING TO BRING YOU THE BEST

To our readers:

As we approach the millennium and begin another promising new year, we're changing the newspaper again - to make our opinion pages even more relevant and engaging for our readers.

As these changes begin to unfold, I want first to thank you for your interest, trust and comments over the past year. Second, I want to review the principles that drive us at The Spokesman-Review and some of the ways we strive to build better communities, businesses, families and better lives in the Inland Northwest. The staff of The Spokesman-Review regards this newspaper as a public trust, which makes us ultimately accountable for delivering the truth to you. Since the founding of The Spokesman more than 116 years ago, our editors and news staff have been tasked with printing the news of the region, independent of influence, without fear, favor or bias. Chief among our obligations is to serve as a watchdog on public institutions. We depend on your views, corrections, comments, suggestions and criticisms to make good our promise of accuracy, fairness, relevance and timeliness in our news coverage. Your letters and opinions become the written record of community debate over all of the issues we face. Our reporters, photographers, editors and I welcome your call or e-mail if you believe we have made a mistake or misplayed a story. We fully recognize that our success depends on our credibility. Our goal is simply to be the best newspaper of our size in the country. The ultimate reward for us is a new or renewed subscription, but getting that order requires excellence across all departments, from news and advertising to production, delivery and support. Last year our reporters and editors won more than 100 awards in regional and national competitions, and the Society of News Design named us one of the 16 best-designed newspapers in the world. Our pressmen beat 21 other metro newspapers in a print quality contest. Our daily delivery complaint ratio remains consistently below the industry standard of two per thousand. We are particularly proud when our local news coverage makes a measurable difference. Our coverage of a local woman's mission to Honduras in the devastating wake of Hurricane Mitch generated more than $50,000 in contributions, enough to rebuild 10 homes there. Our series, "City of Second Chances," reported that Spokane makes room for 149 released felons for every 100 we convict. Gov. Gary Locke and the Legislature took notice. As a result, legislation is pending to improve parole supervision and require that released prisoners be returned to their home jurisdictions. Our "In It Together" series defined the wide scope of diversity issues in our community and what citizens are doing about it. While we may be a long way from resolving these issues, they are open topics of discussion and real change is beginning to occur. We are committed to listening to our readers so we can do a better job of serving them. What we hear most often is a demand for more local news. We've launched initiatives to deliver just that, from our redesigned business pages to "County Lines," our daily feature that includes a news item from every one of the counties we serve. New features address the increasing interest in lifestyle and personal interest news. For those of us with a soft spot for old Spokane, our "Looking Back" photo feature has been greatly successful at tapping into the region's deep vein of nostalgia. Our new, biweekly Pets column addresses the joys and challenges of living with pets - particularly appropriate for a market with higher-than- average pet ownership. Our reader surveys have indicated increasing interest in news about education, health and fitness, and home improvement. Watch for enhanced coverage in these areas later this year. As readers and advertisers make increasing use of the Internet, we are working hard to be sure we can meet their needs in cyberspace, too. Our goal is to create the premier local home page in partnership with Spokane.net, a sister company. More than 10,000 individuals a week access us electronically, and that number is growing by 10 percent per month. Our classified ads and five years of archives already are searchable online. We have more than 40 advertisers running banner ads on our site. Civic groups, nonprofits, sports organizations and other community groups are beginning to discover our free Community Web pages. As a corporate citizen, we are proud to support a broad spectrum of community needs. We help United Way set the pace for giving with an early campaign. Last year, The Spokesman-Review's Christmas Fund raised a record $472,039 to meet the demand for toys, food and heat for needy families during the holidays. We host cultural events based on the conviction that the arts play a critical role in defining a community. As a lead investor in FOCUS 21, the region's $5 million economic development fund, we support funding of Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Council programs to attract or grow 10,000 high-paying jobs in our region by the year 2002. On behalf of the more than 650 reporters, editors, photographers, salespeople, technicians, pre-press operators, pressmen, packaging personnel and support staff who work days and nights to craft a new S-R every morning, thank you for your business. We wish you a successful 1999.

Copyright 1999 Cowles Publishing Company
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