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Herald's Next 'Tell Us What You Think' Tour Date Scheduled

The Herald has a new date for our “Tell Us What You Think” Tour.

This town hall meeting is at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 27, at the Claysburg Library. The library’s address is 957 Bedford St., Claysburg.

This ongoing tour of the Herald’s coverage area is to talk to subscribers, readers and advertisers. All those who want to help improve the Herald and the Cove community are welcome. The goal of the tour is to gather information about what the community wants the Herald to be and what services it wants from the Herald.

The tour consists of one-on-one meetings and town hall meetings. All those interested in community journalism are welcome to participate. There will be no charge to participate and we’ll have light refreshments and door prizes.

Times, dates and locations for future town hall meetings will be announced as we confirm them.

If you have a meeting space and would like to host a Herald “Tell Us What You Think” meeting, please call (814) 793-2144 and ask for Allan or Lugene or send an email to publisher@mcheraldonline.com.

Any meeting space that can handle a meeting of at least 20 people will be helpful. The Herald will pay a rental fee or make a donation (as appropriate) for the use of the space. Since light food and beverage service will be offered at most meetings, the space should be appropriate for that.

Publisher Allan Bassler also will be traveling around the Cove to meet individually with readers and advertisers, so if you’d like to set up a meeting, contact the Herald office using the phone number provided at the end of this article. Bassler will be happy to meet with you in person, at a location of your choosing.

If there are community groups or organizations that would like to meet with Bassler, group leaders should also contact the Herald office to set up the meeting.

The meetings are intended to find out what the community wants and expects from its community newspaper and how the Herald can best serve the community’s needs.

Those who do not want to attend meetings will be invited to send comments to the Herald by letter or email. Addresses will be provided at a later date.

Questions to consider

Some questions to consider are:

• What do you like best about the Herald?

• What do you like least about the Herald?

• What do you always read in the Herald?

• What do you never read in the Herald?

• What should the Herald be doing that it is not doing?

• What should the Herald stop doing?

• How can the Herald help the community?

• What is the Herald missing?

• What would make the Herald a must-read each week?

• What should the Herald’s prime mission be?

Advisory Committees

Several other people have contacted the Herald to indicate interest in serving on one of the Herald’s advisory committees.

The Herald will be setting up advisory panels for those in the community to provide ongoing recommendations and allow the Herald to stay in touch with the community. Those advisory panels will include the Reader Advisory Committee, the Advertiser Advisory Committee and the Opinion Advisory Committee.

The Reader Advisory Committee will be consulted on what news and photos should appear in the pages of the Herald. Committee members will be asked to provide their thoughts about what kind of news the Herald should present and how it should be presented to readers. This includes both the Herald print edition and the website.

The Advertiser Advisory Committee will be asked to provide information and opinions to help improve the Herald’s ability to meet the needs of local advertisers. (Note that nearly all of the Herald’s advertisers are local businesses.) This committee will also be asked to provide information and advice to remake the Herald’s classified ad section and provide recommendations about online advertising.

The Opinion Advisory Committee will be asked to provide thoughts and comments regarding events in the Cove about which the Herald should issue an opinion. (Note that the Herald does not endorse political candidates. Also note that the Herald does not comment on national politics unless there’s a strong connection to the Cove.) Part of a community newspaper’s role is to have a healthy opinion section focused on local issues. Opinion Advisory Committee members might be asked to write opinion columns.

Participation in all the committees will involve being willing to provide honest information about the community, responding to phone or email questions from the Herald’s management, and occasional in-person meetings. The in-person meetings will be at most two or three times a year.

Volunteer committee members will be asked to provide email addresses, mailing addresses and telephone numbers and agree to be contacted by the Herald.

Those interested in serving on any of the planned committees should contact us at the phone number or email address provided below. Those interested may also attend one of the upcoming meetings to express interest.

As always, thank you to the Herald’s subscribers, readers and advertisers for their support of community journalism.

Interested?

• Call (814) 793-2144 and ask for Allan or Lugene.

• Send an email to publisher@mcheraldonline.com.

• Stop in the Herald office.

 

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