The contributors, editors and advertising representatives involved with the content of The Tribune newspaper, covering the Tri-Lakes area, have launched an outreach to determine what will best serve the communities it examines.

Whether it’s the type of content, regular features which may appeal to the communities at large, visibility and determine how its communities prefer to receive their news and features, those involved with The Tribune, a weekly community paper in print as well as an online news source, began its outreach efforts with a focus group meeting Jan. 10 at the Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce office in Monument to solicit input.

Aiding The Tribune in its first round of soliciting input was Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Terri Hayes, office manager and director of membership Nathan Wessells, Kari Hutchinson of The Fletcher Team & Associates, Town of Monument parks and community relations director Madeline VanDenHoek, Rich Shur with Shur Success Group, Tri-Lakes Cares executive director Haley Chapin and School District 38 communications director Mark Belcher. Tribune editor Doug Fitzgerald said the purpose of the gathered focus group was to determine what disparities the community newspaper may be having presently in its coverage and content and to determine where it may fall short in visibility.

Gazette editor John Boogert was also in attendance to hear feedback. The Gazette, under the umbrella of Clarity Media, owns The Tribune.

Input from the roundtable of what was referred to during the meeting as “community experts” ranged from realizing the community at large may not be aware of the scope of content, despite having a 17,000-plus circulation between Monument, Woodmoor, Palmer Lake, Black Forest, Gleneagle and other nearby zip codes, to suggestions for branding special features like the upcoming event calendar and more features on residents and their personal stories.

More business features was also a suggestion as many of the locally owned businesses lend themselves to interesting personal stories from their owners and managers.

Another series of comments were shared to include, or continue to include, the police blotter report from the previous week as residents will see the local police enforcement performing its duties and wonder about the situation. A community paper has the ability to acquire and release such information to the community en masse to help avoid inaccurate word-of-mouth or leave the passing of information solely to social media platforms.

While such a feature can help dispel rumor, of which was said to be another responsibility of a community paper, Fitzgerald said including it is sometimes dependent on the size of the print edition that week. Historically over the past few years, the size of The Tribune has either been a total of eight pages or 16, depending on the amount of advertising involved that given week.

It was also shared community readers can become adverse to constant coverage of “negative news,” overwhelmed by the same from national news, while Tribune contributors noted it aspires to have content celebrating its community . However, factual news even if considered widely “negative” should also be addressed as part of a newspaper’s core mission.

By the end of the meeting, The Tribune’s content providers and deciders said it had a comprehensive place to begin making changes to its features and ideas to increase visibility both in the community and online.

“This was a great meeting and I think we have received a lot of great feedback from it,” Boogert said. “I think we’ve gotten a solid place to start and we would love to have more meetings like this down the road.”

The Tribune welcomes feedback from others in the community and its stakeholders to help focus its coverage and content in the future.

Do you have ideas for how the Tribune can best serve the community?

Contact is at:

doug.fitzgerald@pikespeaknewspapers.com

or

BennFarrellWriter@gmail.com