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Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data.

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So what makes a good community newspaper great?

If you were to go by the story produced by 60 Minutes last Sunday, the story may lead you to believe there isn’t such a thing as a good to great community newspaper. However, 60 Minutes focused its story solely on the largest holder of newspaper titles in the U.S., Alden Group Capital, a hedge fund that has shown no regard for improving journalism in the U.S. The story was far too narrow in its focus on the newspaper/media industry.

Fortunately for those of you here in the area, some of the strongest papers in circulation today are right here in southern Louisiana. While I can’t speak for The Advocate, I know their work to be rock solid and they have strong leadership. I can also report to our local Iberia Parish audience that The Daily Iberian has quickly shown steady improvement over the last six months of my arrival and we’ve only just begun to implement our many plans for growth and sustainability.

Sustainability? For a newspaper? You’re damn right!

I didn’t move across the country to limp along or simply maintain our status quo. My plans are all gas and no brakes, and we’re going to start doing a lot of things a lot differently than we have before because we can, we should and we ask for your support in the many improvements and surprises we have to come.

Starting as soon as next week, The Daily Iberian print and digital subscribers will be able to enjoy our website, iberianet.com, banner ad free! That’s right, no more flashy ads distracting your consumption of local content. A digital/print subscription will wipe those banner ads from the site and also speed up our website as you bounce from page to page.

This is a tactic long used by streaming audio and video for years. If you have a streaming subscription such as Netflix, you can do away with specific types of advertising. You’ll like it, we like it, it simply makes sense. This isn’t the same as saying there will be no advertising on our website, we do exist to be profitable, but we want to do everything we can to provide the best web experience possible on a local news website.

So, subscribe and banner ads be gone!

This is one step among many The Daily Iberian staff is working on to provide exclusive member benefits for our subscribers, both print and digital. What those may look like are still under consideration and we’re open to suggestions from you.

In the future, subscriber members of The Daily Iberian may have exclusive premium or earlier access to local events than nonsubscribers. Maybe there are exclusive discounts for local goods and services. Maybe our subscribers will start having more say on how we operate, a real seat at the table of our future planning meetings.

Whatever it is, we’re trying harder to ingrain ourselves deeper into the community through an increased effort in time and resources. We want to invest even more into the community so we hope you’ll invest more into The Daily Iberian.

It’s a good relationship, The Daily Iberian and our community, but we want to make it better, we want to make it a great relationship. Let’s invest in each other and make it happen because it is simply in our best interests to do so.

MICHAEL MESSERLY is the publisher of The Daily Iberian and Acadiana Lifestyles and can be reached at 337-321-6727 or mmesserly@daily-iberian.com.

We're always interested in hearing about your Opinion. Let us know yours.

Our Cajun Creole Cookbook that will be publishing in November

Copyright © 1997- • The Daily Iberian • 124 E Main St, New Iberia, LA 70560 | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | The DAILY IBERIAN & ACADIANA LIFESTYLE are owned by Wick Communications.

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