Paul Bryant is managing editor of The Chandler & Brownsboro Statesman. In a 15-year career, he has been recognized by state press associations for investigative journalism, features writing, and photojournalism. The last quarter of 2009 has been a good one for the Statesman.

Over the past five months, we’ve redesigned our pages, refocused our news and sports coverage, expanded our advertising efforts, and formed policies to better serve our supporters.

It’s all led to a far better product, and the response from our readers and clients substantiates that.

But we’re not satisfied. By the end of this year, we’ll have evaluated the changes we’ve made and decide where we’ll direct our focus over the next 12 months. We’ll talk about how we can do even more for our advertisers, what we can do better in our news and sports coverage, and how we can further improve our layout and design.

When I came here in July, I wrote about how we wouldn’t let a small market make us small-minded. Our staff has been in the newspaper industry a combined 63 years, including in newsroom management for several large and small newspapers in four states.

While we employ only four people, we bring a progressive attitude to the office every day. We take decades of experience and mix it with industry standards to build a newspaper each week of which this community can be proud.

At the same time, we’re facing a new era in the print industry. Things don’t happen as easily as we’re accustomed to. And although community newspapers across the country have not suffered like the metropolitan publications, we have some of the same concerns and challenges.

Some of the blame can be attributed to the economy. Mostly, though, newspapers have failed because they became political activists.

The role of true newspapers is to serve and to advance the communities they serve. It’s that simple.

When they stop serving, people stop paying attention. And when people stop paying attention, newspapers die.

Even with the rising popularity in new media, newspapers like this one still have a role to play. No other publication or media organization cares as much about our coverage area as does the Statesman. No other covers the community like we do.

Forget about finding all those sports images in Tyler or in Athens. Forget about reading about all the goingson in Ben Wheeler somewhere else. We deliver where others won’t or can’t, because we’re here and they’re not.

That’s not going to change.

And in 2010, we’re going to do more. We expect to grow, but we need your help.

We need you to continue supporting your newspaper through news and sports submissions, story leads, advertising, and subscriptions. We need your input on how we can be even better.

We need you to remain involved.

As for us, we’ll continue to make good on our promises. We’ll work to improve with every publication. We’ll continue to earn your trust.

Thanks for reading.