Can someone be special and still be aligned with more than 80 percent of the population?

You may not think so, but it’s not only possible, you’re living proof.

You, dear reader, are unique and appreciated to this newspaper — your newspaper.

But your readership makes you part of a pretty popular group of local residents.

By reading this newspaper — print or online — you’re part of a huge number of community residents who understand the importance of being informed on the issues facing our community and staying up on the latest news.

A recent community survey by Pulse Research in Portland, Ore., shined some light on just how many of you there are reading us.

More than 81 percent of the population in the Natchez and Vidalia area reported reading The Democrat each week.

That’s double — and in some cases even triple — the audience of any other media option on the survey, despite giant amounts of hype to the contrary.

From a business perspective, we’re strong — thanks to dedicated readers like yourselves and loyal advertising customers who wish to reach our readers.

Despite being around for nearly 150 years, we’re constantly seeking out ways to serve readers and customers better.

You may have noticed in the last couple of years, from an editorial perspective, our staff has begun doing more investigative pieces.

One of the first examples was digging through a year’s worth of Adams County government’s cell phone records.

A second example was the work to dig through and interpret the results of dozens and dozens of criminal proceedings in Adams County Circuit Court to help the public understand what’s going on with our court system.

But it’s not just the information inside that’s changing, we’re constantly tweaking other things, too.

Our website’s underlying design recently changed slightly, though most folks may not notice it, to accommodate the growing number of people who read local news on their mobile phones.

If you haven’t looked at our site recently on your phone, give it a try.

The new redesign will look familiar, since it’s based on our main website’s look and feel.

The design is created to allow data to flow more naturally on mobile phones.

Now, you can read all of the news on our site from your phone without having to zoom in and out or scroll around sideways a bunch.

We’ll continue to tweak that and move into more mobile platforms in the coming weeks and months.

Our digital audience is growing significantly, reaching more than 10,000 online users each day.

We still reach more folks in print, however.

But each one of those readers — either print or online — is important to us, and our team is constantly trying to listen to readers and customers to make smart changes to improve upon what we do each and every day.

If you have ideas on things to make our products better, please let us know.

Thanks for your readership.

 

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.