From the Editor: Honest effort in changing times for newspapers

I've written often in this space about The Bee's online coverage, but much of our attention right now is focused on improving the newspaper.

In late July, we'll move to a more compact format (about an inch narrower) for our print edition.

We decided to trim the page width to save money on newsprint.

Once we headed in that direction, though, we saw a chance to do more than squeeze the same paper into a smaller frame.

So instead of just shrinking the old model, we're working on a new model Bee.

Many members of our news staff are immersed in discussions of what we cover, how we organize the paper and how we can make a smaller Bee a more compelling and rewarding Bee.

Talk like that can cause indigestion among longtime readers who have seen The Bee and other newspapers remove stock listings, reduce television books and eliminate other coverage in recent years.

One reader wrote that the way our sections are organized is like a filing system for him: He knows where we keep things and where he can find them.

New sections don't appeal to him.

To such readers, change means decline.

I understand those worries. People have spent decades reading news- papers organized a certain way, and I agree that you need good reasons to rearrange the "filing system."

But our goal isn't simply to change. It's to improve.

Many readers like smaller-format papers because they're easier to handle, especially in tight quarters like airplane seats.

We're also in times when Americans are more aware of waste and environmental stewardship, so using less paper appeals to those impulses.

Most significantly, newspapers in 2008 exist in a different information universe from 20 years ago, or 10, or even five.

Our readers are more diverse in their habits and interests than they were 40 years ago, when almost everyone read a newspaper.

Some are news junkies who tell us to skip the national and world news because they've already seen it – focus on state and local, they say.

Others are newspaper-only readers. If we don't report it for them, they say, they won't know it.

Most readers fall in between.

For readers who don't use the Internet, The Bee can report in traditional ways and provide a connection to online-only material that is of high interest and importance.

For readers who follow news on the Web and through mobile technology, The Bee can report right away online and amplify tomorrow in the paper.

A newspaper can capture the most important news of the prior day, look ahead, offer perspective and analysis and put together stories, photos and graphics in ways that enhance understanding.

We can organize, orient and engage people in community issues: traditional aims that we can address in new ways.

Our working idea is this: The Bee should report news and do a great job at it, in print and online. A good news-paper and a good Web site are complementary, not contradictory.

Those who don't like change in their Bee might be reassured a bit by the aims that have come out of our staff discussions. Among them: break more news and offer more depth on key issues for Sacramento and Northern California; bring more voices and ideas into our pages; build on our strengths in covering policy, politics and government; tell more memorable stories.

We have big ambitions for the new model Bee. I'll keep you posted as we move along with our plans.

About the writer:

• Reach The Bee's editor, Melanie Sill, at (916) 321-1002.