By Mike Norman
mnorman@star-telegram.com
It's nice to be able to settle back and enjoy the holiday season. December gives almost everyone a chance to celebrate something, whether it's Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or just cold weather (although really cold has been rare so far this year).
It's also nice to be able to look forward to next year. Where the
Star-Telegram's opinion pages are concerned, the people I work with and I have been thinking about next year for some time now. I'm excited about the results and eager to tell you about what we have planned.
First and foremost, we'll expand the "we."
We're bringing in someone who will add more diversity to our opinions. Craig Diebel, a long-time manager on the advertising, marketing and digital media sides of
Star-Telegram operations, will join the Editorial Board in January.
Many of our readers know Craig, because for 33 years at the
Star-Telegram his job has been to be out of the office, in the community, helping advertisers decide how to meet their business goals by connecting with customers through newspaper advertising.
In recent years, he has focused on helping advertisers make those customer connections in the digital world, and in doing so he's been a fulcrum on which the
Star-Telegram has shifted our own business operations and sharply increased our online readership.
One of the things we on the Editorial Board hope Craig can do for us is help determine ways to expand our readership and share more opinions online.
Primarily, we're after what he thinks about the public issues of the day. Most people would describe Craig as conservative, which is what some of our readers have told us we have needed on the Editorial Board.
He was born in Cleburne, grew up in West Texas (his parents live in Fort Worth now), graduated from TCU in 1977 and married Fort Worth native Peggy Stocker. They have two children, both graduates of Paschal High School: Son Willis graduated this month from Vanderbilt University with a degree in mechanical engineering and math, and daughter Gretchen is a junior at Vanderbilt majoring in political science and economics.
Craig is a past chairman of the Salvation Army Advisory Board, is on the Cabinet of the Van Cliburn Foundation and is a member of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.
Craig has been a friend for decades. Now we'll see how well he holds his own in arguments with other members of the Editorial Board. I'm confident that he will, and we appreciate his willingness to help hone our editorial stands.
We have other things planned for the new year, too.
For Monday newspaper and online publication, we'll be launching a new way to share reader opinions on designated topics. It's similar to our daily STEW (Star-Telegram Editorial Writers) questions, which are drawing readership and comments from a fast-growing number of people online.
We'll continue the STEW, and we want to expand the concept with "All Points." We'll publish a weekly All Points question or topic in the newspaper and online and allow several days for readers to respond at more length than the typical STEW response. We'll publish the best responses on Mondays, both in the paper and online.
Finally, we're shaping our ideas on how best to attract more column-length commentary from Tarrant County opinion leaders on important issues that affect our readers.
Many people send us proposed columns already. What we're looking for is the right way to draw commentary from people who might not yet be speaking out but have a lot to offer.
We're not quite ready to launch that part of our plan yet, but we hope to have it designed and ready to go soon after the first of the year. It's going to be an exciting time.
Mike Norman is editorial director of the Star-Telegram.817-390-7830Twitter: @mnorman9
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