Letters from the Editor: Mixing things up

Readers may notice some changes this week in print and online.

First off, we’ve moved the Schools page from Tuesdays to Sundays, the hope being that more parents can enjoy our In the Classroom feature on what is traditionally a day for families to gather and talk. Lisa McLaughlin certainly inspires that kind of talk with her fantastic column, The College Conversation, which will move from Saturdays to anchor the new Schools page.

To make room for Schools, we moved our On Vacation feature, which shows Daily Pilot readers holding copies of the paper while on vacation, from Sundays to Wednesdays.

Also, we’ve gotten repeated requests to bring back concentrated business coverage. So I am happy to announce that we’ll revive the Business page on Tuesdays. The goal is to have one substantive business feature a week combined with short items on restaurant and retail openings, work promotions and the like.

Business stories will also appear throughout the week when there’s news that can’t wait for Tuesdays.

There will also be some more changes to our ever-evolving websites, dailypilot.com and OCNow.com.

I’ve implemented what’s called a web-first workflow in our newsroom. This is industry-speak, so allow me to explain it.

Most of our stories, particularly breaking news, will appear online as soon as we have some of the basic facts nailed down. As the stories develop, and we get more information, the stories will be continuously updated throughout the day. Final versions will appear in the evening online and in print the following morning.

We’ve done this to some extent in the past, particularly with important stories, but the demands of online readers are such that we need to be even faster. We will be.

OCNow, which aggregates content from the Los Angeles Times, Daily Pilot, Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot and Huntington Beach Independent, will now also include Orange County content and links from KTLA-5 News. The station is part of Tribune, the same corporate family that owns The Times and its community titles, and its content will certainly help strengthen our Orange County reporting.

We’ll also continue to include content from our two key media partners, Corona del Mar Today and Greer’s OC, on OCNow.

Also online, we will soon launch a comprehensive politics and election section. Web Editor Jamie Rowe is building those pages in time for the November election. She is creating a one-stop location where voters can get comprehensive information on candidates in state, city and school board races.

And, for those who prefer print, all of that information will appear in the pages of the Daily Pilot as well.

We’ll be making more changes this fall. Keep reading.

JOHN CANALIS is the editor for the Daily Pilot, Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot and Huntington Beach Independent. He can be reached at (714) 966-4607 and [email protected].