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We are evolving to serve you

My Nikkel's worth column

You may have noticed a theme on this page, namely that we are celebrating National Newspapers Week, and we’re awfully darn proud of the work we do here.

But more than that, we — along with the entire newspaper industry — feel that there is a vital role being served by this paper that goes right to the heart of democracy itself, not to mention the role of telling the stories of people and issues and happenings from around the community.

Keeping in mind the transitions towards the Internet and social media, the Weyburn Review and Weyburn This Week are maintaining a presence with our website, along with Facebook, and now Instagram also.

In addition, there is a bright new talent here at the Review/This Week who really should be introduced to you in Readerland. We have a new reporter here, April Zielke, a Calgary transplant who has brought her enthusiasm and bright smile to us, along with her talents in videography.

I am proud to also say she is a fellow alumni of SAIT in Calgary, where she did two years of radio, television and broadcast news, majoring in broadcasting.

(I also took two years of Journalism Arts there, and I loved the hands-on aspect of the course, which I’m sure was also the case for April in her course.)

Anyway, April has been doing a number of videos, of Red Wings with player profiles as well as from some of their home games, and with several local busineses as a part of the advertising feature, “Meet the Locals”.

We’ve also been able to supplement some of our photography with videos on our website, also available on YouTube, such as of the live foosball game held by CMHA recently, of the Terry Fox Run at River Park, as two examples.

I’ve tried doing some video, such as of the Midale threshing demonstration in August. My abilities are not as honed as Ms. Zielke’s, but I’m hoping I will get better as I do it more.

April’s abilities and expertise brings to us an important development in our evolution as a media outlet, namely that we can get the news out in the paper, on the Internet, on social media, with both still shots and video, so we are more of a well-rounded media outlet, not just a newspaper.

In this way, we are continuing to fulfil the role of getting the news and making it available to the community in whichever format they want. Some people do still want a printed newspaper to hold and to read, and others want to access it on their computers, phones or tablets, or whatever other mobile devices they want to use. So, as we’ve said elsewhere here, take the pledge and support newspapers!