Gustus: Meet our new reporters, and thanks for reading

One of my goals is to communicate more — with our readers and the team here in the newsroom. And every day presents an opportunity.

I’m writing today with a few updates, a thank you and an ask. Here goes.

New faces

We are and will continue to strive to offer you more and better local news, like the recent stories on how safe our local home day cares are, the piece on difficulty in accessing Tarrant County public court documents and in the audio we shared Friday from a local football broadcaster who made racist and derogatory comments about the opposing team.

I’ve heard from a few of you who have noticed there are more local stories in the paper. Or that we’re reporting in areas where perhaps we haven’t spent time previously. There’s plenty of room for us to grow, and I continue to welcome your feedback.

I’m grateful for the team of dedicated journalists in our newsroom.

And we’ve welcomed a few new reporters since I last wrote:

Prescotte Stokes III is our newest digital reporter. Peter Dawson is writing for what we’re calling the Texas Moneyball beat, connecting the dots on how public and private dollars are being spent on sports, which is big business in North Texas. Lena Blietz is telling stories through video. Find her work by following the Star-Telegram on Facebook or Instagram or attached stories on our site at star-telegram.com.

We’ve launched an internship program this fall, welcoming fall interns from TCU and UTA. We’ll continue this program year-round, offering students paid opportunities to learn on the job.

And, finally, we’ll welcome Shelley Kofler, whom you may know from her time at KERA and WFAA, as our first Engagement Editor in November. We’re better when we work together. Shelley will help build partnerships that will enable us to better serve this community. She’ll also oversee our Opinion efforts.

You can find contact info for all of us at star-telegram.com/newsroom.

Thank you

If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for reading. Not just here, but also for your support of other local news organizations.

We published a column from Star-Telegram and TCU alum Bob Schieffer in Sunday’s Opinion section. Bob listened to journalists in more than 40 newsrooms over the last year. He is concerned the internet has allowed us all to become publishers with little delination, with respect to quality and sourcing, and so now we have many unreliable new sources.

Bob writes about how this development, combined with attacks by politicians and propagandists on our credibility because we report something they don’t wish to hear, is creating a significant threat for those that value credible news.

I happen to agree. With that, thanks again for your support.

So to the ask, if I might be so bold: share your copy of the paper. Share a story with friends, via email or Facebook. Invite someone to read. If they don’t subscribe, let them know we’d happily welcome them (digital-only subscriptions are $9.99/month at star-telegram.com/activate).

We are working hard to earn your trust and tell local stories that will make an impact. We can’t do it without you. Thanks again for your support.

This story was originally published October 28, 2017 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Gustus: Meet our new reporters, and thanks for reading."