In March and April,
WW's management group developed and published the company's
1999-2000 business plan. Check out the Cliffs
Notes version.
Anyone who came by our offices last Thursday might have thought
we were moving.
Throughout the morning, dozens of WW-ers carted
fried computers, splay-footed chairs, stuffed cardboard
boxes and dead lamps out the door and into three huge dumpsters.
(Not to worry: We weren't going anyplace, and two of the
three drop boxes were for recycling.)
Given the nature of our planning and budgeting cycles,
spring usually is the time of greatest change at Willamette
Week. Last week's office-wide cleaning was just one
of a host of new developments.
This issue of WW, for example, marks the introduction
of Life, a new section designed
to add feature material to the current mix of news and culture
coverage. Its goal is to warm the paper up by speaking to
a facet of our readers' interests we haven't addressed before
on a regular basis.
With Life, our challenge is to add more feature material
without compromising the hard-headed nature of our news
reporting or the edginess of our arts and entertainment
coverage. As with the rest of the paper, design of the new
section is the product of a collaboration between our graphics
team, led by Katherine Topaz, and Johnson & Wolverton,
a Portland-based design firm that did most of its work on
this project from its Amsterdam office.
This week's paper also contains a new Personals column,
"Dinner Palace of Love" by Suey Chow. Chow is the winner
of a months-long search for a new columnist that drew more
than 250 applicants. At the same time, we have brought new
editors on board in two key areas--music and film. Look
for the bylines of Zach Dundas and Dave McCoy.
While the addition of these new writers and features is
the most visible of WW's spring changes, more is
going on beneath the surface.
For one thing, we have decided to change our advertising
policies. As a result, in a few weeks you can expect to
see tobacco advertising in these pages. This change has
been the subject of much discussion in our office, some
of it quite heated.
We have also decided to increase the paper's press run.
This will take us from a weekly circulation of 80,000 to
85,000 and will occur in two bursts: 2,500 copies will be
added this month, with 2,500 more to come in September.
Fifty new street boxes and even more new racks will help
expand our distribution system.
You may have also noticed that our printing has been clearer
lately and the ink less likely to smudge. This is because
our printer installed a new water system to aid with inking
on the press. An added benefit of the new water system is
a dramatic reduction in waste.
Finally, we are becoming more active in the digital world.
Jim Abeles has handed his position as classified manager
to Riona Koppang and will concentrate on developing the
e-commerce side of our business. The goal is to use the
emergence of PC chip-based networks, especially the Internet,
to make it easier for customers to do business with us.
We'll report more as this side of our business develops.
These are busy and exciting times here at WW. Now,
to make the transition to spring complete, all we need are
clearer skies and some warmer weather.
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Willamette Week | originally
published May 5, 1999 |
