Welcome to The Longmont Leader
Today we at The Compass Experiment began publishing The Longmont Leader. What follows is an introductory column to the Longmont community by The Leader’s editor, Macie May, which was published today.
I would like to welcome you to the first day of The Longmont Leader. I am very excited that I have the opportunity to continue bringing the news to Longmont. It was a passion I found very early with the Longmont Observer and have never lost.
It seems that every time anyone talks about current events, they use some form of the words in these changing and uncertain times. It is true, so much has and is still changing each day. Although, hopefully, we will be able to report more positive changes in the near future, starting with The Longmont Leader.
Change can be hard but I can honestly say that I believe that the changes coming with The Leader are positive and will do even more for our community than the underfunded Observer was able to do. The Leader is building a team of five people to start, so gone are the days of our all-volunteer force. We’ll be able to expand our coverage hours and days so readers will be able to get local news updates on weekends, too. But the one I am most excited about, and a dream realized, is the ability to hire a bilingual reporter to ensure that the news isn’t kept from part of our community due to a language barrier.
I want to assure you that one thing I do not want to change is having a non-partisan newsroom in Longmont and the staff at The Leader are in full support of that ideal. In our earliest conversations with readers in Longmont, we heard that’s something that’s important to you, too.
My goal is to extend coverage in Longmont to include more topics that are important to our readers, to dive deeper into stories, to bridge the gap between cultures by sharing as many stories as we can, and by getting to know our neighbors even better. This is not an exclusive list but it is a place to start. If you would like to help me focus our news direction, I encourage you to participate in some of our upcoming events. My team and I would like to hear from you.
Speaking of my team, it is coming together nicely and I am looking forward to being able to introduce them to you. This team will be full of people with a love of journalism and excitement to gain an even deeper understanding of Longmont.
Until we can venture out to see you in person, please feel free to contact me at info@longmontleader.com or for personal inquiries at macie@longmontleader.com. I am always happy to chat with you about your stories.
The Longmont Leader is part of The Compass Experiment, a local news laboratory founded by McClatchy and Google News Initiative’s Local Experiments Project. This Medium site is set up to share news and learnings from The Compass Experiment’s local news websites.
