A Saturday section you’ve asked for

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/05/2013 (4727 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every good newspaper wants to help readers get their bearings so they can navigate the world in which they live.

The journalism that underpins the stories and analysis has to connect. It has to be compelling. It has to be relevant. And for good measure, it should also serve up a little attitude and latitude.

So when you open your Free Press Saturday, you’ll find a new weekend section designed to do all of that and more, thanks to input from our readers.

The advice from the more than 500 readers who responded to my invite in January with emails, letters and phone calls was central to the creative process. And since our readers told us where we need to be, we wanted to give the new section a name that drives home that journalistic mission by aligning it at the crossroads of where our city and the Free Press began.

The title 49.8° speaks to the line of latitude that marks the heart of Winnipeg. From that starting point each week, we will chart a course that intersects what you wanted to read with a 20-page section that has a magazine feel and flare.

Some highlights:

• You wanted more original reporting, big-picture thinking and longer reads. Our new cover story will do that in a way that is more visually rich.
• You wanted your Free Press to be a bigger window on your world. We will bring you more news and views from around the world on our GPS pages.
• You wanted more stuff that was just plain interesting, fun and engaging. We’ll do that on our Intersection pages by reflecting what happens when life meets culture with stories on health, faith, food and fashion. And because we all need a daily diversion, we’ve packaged two pages of puzzles and crosswords together so you don’t need to hunt for them in different sections.

As we’ve reimagined and rethought our weekend paper, you’ll also notice some changes, largely due to the winding down of both FYI and Detour. Our book section becomes a bigger four-page pullout you will now find in our Arts & Life section. Both our coloured comics and the black-and-white funnies are now together in Travel.

We’ve worked hard to come up with a new premium section we hope will reward you for the time you invest in reading it.

But our work hasn’t ended yet, as we are prepared to tweak the section based on your feedback. I’ll be at the Free Press News Café at 273 McDermot Ave., Saturday morning from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., standing by to buy coffee for anyone who wants to join me in reading and reviewing our new magazine.

I’ll be the guy in the corner next to the Free Press stack at 49.8°.

 

— Paul Samyn is the Free Press editor

paul.samyn@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @paulsamyn