I’m not sure of the year or the exact month, but I do know that it was on a summer family vacation to Longboat Key, Florida that I may have picked up my first newspaper. The Longboat Observer was a weekly newspaper reporting local news, social events and other happenings from this beach community.
But the only thing I wanted to know was whether the police had caught a murderer who had killed a doctor and his family just a few blocks from the condo where we were staying. My parents didn’t want to expose me and my neurosis to this kind of news (I was quite young), so the only place I could turn to for the news I needed, naturally, was the local newspaper. I needed to know this man was not roaming “my beach” anymore. As long as this murderer was on the streets, I was going to be up late, preoccupied, unable to sleep.
Two decades later, I found myself in the same place, Longboat Key, with the same newspaper, The Longboat Observer. And, yes, still up late, unable to sleep. Except what kept me up this time was not the news of a local murder. It was the news of an important vote on zoning regulations, the reporting of a boat raffle for a local charity, a story about the resort renovations that are taking place on the Key. Heck, even the photos and account of Edna Kane’s 90th birthday caused me at least a few minutes of shut-eye. And it wasn’t just me. The entire staff of the Longboat Observer played special attention these stories and more.
This was all part of the redesign that took place over the last six months. And these were stories in the redesigned issue that launched last week. I hadn’t been back to Longboat Key in a long time, but when Publishers Matt and Lisa Walsh invited me to be a part of their redesign, it wasn’t just the warm waters of the Gulf (yes, their offices happened to be across the street from the beach) or the chance to re-visit some great childhood memories that made me jump at the chance. As it does for its readers, this newspaper sold itself to me.
From it’s “neighborhood” feel, to its warm and inviting features, The Longboat Observer just seemed like the kind of newspaper I wanted to spend my time with as a reader. Matt and Lisa knew I felt this too, and if they were going to ask their readers to spend time with their newspaper they wanted to ensure that there was not one moment or one page wasted.
What this newspaper needed was a “window” to all the great stuff beyond the front page. We created this window, a large promo bar under the flag that lets readers know right away what they were in for on the inside sections. Story structures were also added that let scanning readers navigate through the entire newspaper and get what they needed in less time. The charge at the onset of this redesign was to make sure the newspaper maintained its community-minded spirit, but with a metropolitan flair. The new design accomplishes that resulting in a livelier, exciting newspaper that fits the personality of the community it serves.
In the boardroom of large news organizations one thing that is hardly spoken of, but always unchanged is the very nature and fabric of community newspapers like the Longboat Observer and its sister publications in Sarasota, East County and Osprey. As the world has gotten smaller, thanks to technology, the news that really matters to readers in communities like Longboat Key has seen a reduced roll on the local and national news or the large regional dailies. Lately there’s been a conscious effort to undo this, but when a focus group is needed to determine how important local community news is, then this isn’t really a newspaper serving its base of readers.
The Longboat Observer hasn’t needed a focus group, or any large research firm to tell them what to put in their paper. They feel it, they live it. I often get asked what the future of newspapers is. I believe the answer to that rests in the past – More focus on the positive community news and events that impact our lives where we live from the people who live there with us. This is the case with the Longboat Observer.
The Longboat Observer has taken the next important step in its evolution. They are undaunted by the larger dailies from the north and south of their area with the larger resources and budgets. As far as they are concerned, they are the most important resource to their readers, and their emotional (and financial) investment in this redesign, from the publishers and editors, to the reporters, to the ad sales folks and to the designers is a testament to the growing role of community news, not just in Longboat Key, but all over the world.
I don’t remember if I ever got the answer I needed from picking up that Longboat Observer as a nine or ten year-old. Not even sure they caught that guy. But I do know that I managed to sleep better that week. Just as I will do tonight knowing that the Longboat Observer is still there, still doing whatever it takes to serve their readers.