Did You Feel That?

Something's rumbling in the News-Tribune empire, and we can only hope its something good.

A careful perusal of the masthead of The Tribune today (the first issue of the week) reveals that Jim Nichols has been appointed as Executive Editor of the paper. Indications are that the news operations are going to be more integrated.

We're just reading tea leaves here, but absent an official statement from the new publisher, John Tucker, we'll just have to speculate.

I have had the pleasure of spending time with Jim and I have a lot of respect for his capabilities and his thinking. My guess is that he will be working on strategy for both papers and introducing increasingly more significant changes in the coverage, while Managing Editor Chris Morris will continue to make assignments and manage the work of the reporting staff. How this will affect the opinion pages remains to be seen.

What's on the horizon for our local papers? Will they expand coverage with longer, more in-depth stories? Or will they follow an industry trend toward more color and graphics accompanying shorter stories?

My hope is they find a way to do both. I'd love to see more investigative pieces that take a long view and explain the significance of ongoing stories that dominate the daily news. As currently constituted, the Tribune seems to be a deadline-driven product that reports the basics, but neglects explanations of why an event or action is of importance to the community.

Volunteer Hoosier extends its best wishes to Nichols as he takes on this added responsibility. Our expectations are high.