Resolution: a little better every day

I’ve never been particularly good at New Year’s resolutions. It’s not that I don’t have certain goals and aspirations, I just don’t tend to center them on specific dates on the calendar. Maybe I’d be more successful at the changes I seek to make if I took resolutions more seriously.

I have a friend who is the co-author of a book meant to introduce entrepreneurs and business owners to a new growth mindset. One of the major recommendations in that book is that you should set an impossible goal that will supposedly push you outside your comfort zone as you try to reach it, though you will ultimately fail to do so.

The problem for me with that philosophy is that, once it’s clear the goal is truly out of reach, my motivation goes away. Incremental growth with a slight upward slope fits more with my personality.

When I first arrived at the Bulletin in September, I had a few modest goals. We wanted to start covering local sports again. While we’re not completely where I want to be there, we’ve started along that path and had some positive results on which to build.

We understand that news comes in all shapes and sizes, and that deep dives into corruption and crime are part of this business. We also know that a lot of negative things happen in the news.

My personal belief is that a weekly community newspaper cannot be all things to all people, so it has been my goal to begin the process of filling another role of newspapers, as a community historian.

I have had multiple conversations with readers who call in with news tips that involve exposing some sort of deep, dark happenings. As I explain to them, we are a weekly-in-print community newspaper without the bandwidth to do the deep dives unless those stories are of such magnitude that we cannot avoid reporting to our readers.

Why am I sharing this?

I know some of our readers long for us to be the community watchdog and when they call in with leads and find out we’re not going to take on the story in the format they suggest, they’re disappointed. Most of them understand, but they're disappointed.

Yes, our primary coverage focus is on positive, uplifting storytelling. That’s the kind of weekly newspaper we want to be. Hopefully our loyal readers understand that and value it. In the meantime, when there is something going on that requires a healthy dose of watchdog, we will do the research and get involved where we can accurately tell a balanced story.

But mostly, I believe that all of you have a story that is worth sharing and we want to tell those stories. We want to lift your friends and neighbors with stories of the good in our community.

I continue to be resolved to do that. I also continue to encourage all of you to contact us at the Bulletin and share your thoughts and your story ideas with us. I can’t say we’re doing it perfectly, but I can assure you as we enter 2026 that we are trying to get a little better every day.