Letter to the Editor: A reader's compliant is cause for thanks

Dear Editor,

The purpose of a local paper is to inform its readers on local issues. I was dismayed when receiving (the Nov. 5) Willows Journal that I should own a computer and be literate in same to know how the local election turned out.

The Willows Journal has become more of a shopping news throwaway and not a very good one at that. Two or three local items are on the front page. Maybe an obituary printed inside, a gallery of photos seldom local and lots of coverage for Tri-County sports. Even the classified are mostly out of county.

It seems to me you have plenty of space to print the local news if you omit the full-page fillers of mostly fluff.

Please do better; at least try.

Virginia Chappell
Willows

Dear Virginia,

Reader feedback like yours is always welcome, even if that feedback points out something that needs improvement.

Heaven knows, we all could stand some improvement. The same is true of the newspapers we publish, which include the Orland Press-Register, Corning Observer and Colusa County Sun-Herald in addition to the Willows Journal. Every newspaper is a work in progress, and it's not fun to watch when that progress is sidetracked or when readers say we missed the boat.

As for the election, our Nov. 5 print editions went to press before the polls even closed Nov. 4. Our newspapers are printed in Marysville following a tight schedule, and sometimes that schedule forces us to omit news that we (and our readers) would love to see in print sooner. That's one of the limitations of the printed page.

On the plus side, we posted our election stories and results on our Web sites as soon as they became available, so readers were able to see them online before they appeared in Friday's print editions. That sort of coverage wasn't possible in years past, but now we post first, publish second. Owning a computer is not a requirement, Virginia, but the growing numbers of readers who do have them can turn to our Web sites for breaking news.

As for trying to do better, we are. Every day. Those efforts aren't always as visible as our mistakes, but I'm eternally thankful for our staff's hard work. About half of them are working Thanksgiving Day to bring you today's edition. I hope you'll agree it's time well spent.

Michael S. Green
Interim editor