Sure hope you like this!

Let’s face it; journalists aren’t as hard-boiled as we were once upon a time. Congeniality and intellectualism has gotten in the way, though I will concede most reporters remain steadfastly, heartlessly cynical.

My first editor way back when was as tough as hardtack. He had lived the life, so to speak; worked the night desk at The Toronto Star in his prime, drank like a fish, smoked two packs a day (Craven A’s, dude), and went through a couple of wives.

The latter probably because of his motto, my way or the highway, kid. That kind of thinking isn’t so predominant today, where the concept of ‘team’ now holds sway even in the highly competitive world of print journalism.

Of course, we challenge our reporter/photographers to be the best at what they do and encourage friendly competition within the newsroom. But it’s not like it was.

That curmudgeon of an editor in the wild, woolly west used to hammer at me all the time: “Do you want the front page, kid? Is it yours today?�

Whether it was a photo or story, the answer was always the same: “Damn right I do!� Then I’d go out and do my level best to, as Captain Picard of Star Trek fame loved to say, make it so.

There’s nothing wrong with that. Journalists across the country and in Atlantic Canada submit their work to the Canadian Community Newspaper and Atlantic Community Newspaper Association Better Newspapers Competition on an annual basis.

It’s healthy to step up and be considered by your peers, just as it’s beneficial for us here to remain open to your input whenever we print or post a story.

It’s about accountability, really, and I’m happy to say, as you pick up today’s brand-new edition of The Advertiser, that the lines of communication are wide open.

This redesigned newspaper has been in the works for months and is the result of careful planning by our management, editorial, production and sales team.

Keep in mind that something as dramatic as what you see here is no accident. It requires a great deal of technical skill and editorial expertise to forge such a lively news and information package, but that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

In fact, it’s standard in the industry to revamp regularly and we’re delighted to offer you a cleaner, more modern and sophisticated product. And as much as I endorse it, I’ve found it interesting to gauge the reaction in-house to today’s launch.

You’ll find Wendy Elliott’s thoughts on Page 9 in this edition and our Group Publisher, Caroline Andrews, took out a full-page ad to explore with you the nuance of what we’ve done.

I’ve never seen that done before and certainly appreciate the willingness of our senior executive to step up and put the word out there that we’ve entered another phase of our ongoing development.

For me, service to the community is the bottom line. But if we can make the trip pleasurable as well, why not go there? We talked about it, did our homework and put our heads together as a group. Then, as they say, voila!

We still want to cop individual awards – who wouldn’t? – but the new Advertiser is the result of a total team effort.

My editor in Lloydminster would’ve been appalled, I’m sure, but no doubt he’d applaud the result. He knew a good thing when he saw it.