The Roanoke Times sports section earned honorable mention for Sunday sections in the Associated Press Sports Editors’ writing and section contests for newspapers with circulations between 40,000 and 100,000. Honorable mention places The Roanoke Times among the top-20 Sunday sections in the nation in that division.
Rep. Tom Periello
Reporter Janelle Rucker and photographer Sam Dean spent several days last week in Washington with Rep. Tom Perriello. With the country in economic crisis, the region's freshman congressman has been busy. Read the full story -- and watch the video -- on Sunday.
Dan Casey
The column will debut on Sunday, March 8, and publish three times a week in the paper. Dan will also make frequent blog postings.
From editor Carole Tarrant: 2008 was an opportunity for The Roanoke Times newsroom to define community journalism in a variety of ways. We can report in the finest watchdog tradition, as was the case with Laurence Hammack's coverage of the expense irregularities of ex-Roanoke City Councilman Alfred Dowe. We can also provide vibrant near-neighborhood-level coverage in print and online, as we do daily with our eight-month-old publications So Salem, The Botetourt View and SwoCo. This video, produced by multimedia editor Seth Gitner, captures the best in yet another memorable year. I hope you'll take a look and let us know what you think.
Roanoke Times editor Carole Tarrant's From the Newsroom column today:
Beginning with tomorrow's paper, you will see some changes in the makeup of your Monday-to-Saturday Roanoke Times.
As you might expect, these changes come about as our business joins many others in adjusting to the country's weakening economy.
In an effort to conserve newsprint - the wood pulp most of you are reading this on - we are combining some sections of the newspaper into the front news section. Most notably, the Virginia and Business sections will fold into the front news section.
I'll take a few minutes below to explain more of the changes in detail. But before I do, I want to emphasize a few things.
The first is we are a strong and profitable company whose dedication to serving the community remains unmoved. While our business, like many others these days, is challenged, our audience, is, in fact, strong. That's because while wood pulp carries our words to some people, we are reaching an expanding audience of readers every day who get our content on their computer or mobile device from our Web site, roanoke.com.
The second is we don't expect this reformatting of the paper to result in a considerable reduction in the news we deliver, particularly local news. We realize that many of you look to us, foremost, for our daily community coverage. We appreciate that you value the work of our 100-plus journalists who report on and explain the significance of news happening in Southwest Virginia.
Yes, we realize the changes you'll see Monday will take some getting used to. But we're asking for your patience during a time when businesses need to take prudent, proactive measures to ensure their future health.
Again, these changes do not affect your Sunday paper. That remains our largest publication of the week, the one where we broaden our coverage and write stories you can settle in with at a leisurely weekend pace.
Did you happen to catch Tuesday night's showing of JobQuest, the monthly television program on job hunting in Western Virginia? It's produced by Blue Ridge Public Television and the Roanoke Times is one of the sponsors.
If you saw the show, you can give us some feedback by leaving a comment belowing or emailing Dwayne Yancey, senior editor for new channels.
And let us know what you'd like to hear about on the March 17 show.
For background on JobQuest, check out our posts from Dec. 23 and Jan. 31.
