It is hard to believe that it has been a year since I began my role here in Chattanooga as the president of the Times Free Press. I would like to thank the many great Chattanoogans who have welcomed my wife and me to town and helped us feel at home. I have become involved with the Tivoli Theatre, the United Way of Chattanooga and the Chamber of Commerce and already feel like part of our growing city.
Bruce HartmannAfter working as publisher of the Knoxville News Sentinel and then in a corporate role for the E.W. Scripps Company for just over 25 years, it was my good fortune to be invited to become part of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. I have been impressed with the vibrancy of downtown Chattanooga, the success of Chamber initiatives, and "The Chattanooga Way," the way so many people and businesses work together here to get things done.
I am also extremely proud to be a part of a news source the quality of the Times Free Press. We know you rely on us to bring you the information you want and need, and we strive daily to meet your expectations.
Over the past year, we have tried to make some positive changes to your newspaper to better serve you. We have developed four goals to meet the needs our customers: focus on our core products (both print and digital offerings), grow our audience, expand our brand and work together to better serve our community.
Our award-winning reporting staff is the largest of any local media. In focusing on our core product, we are working hard to provide you with more local news as well as information about what is happening across the state and throughout the nation. We have been adjusting to our new press. Hopefully, production and customer service issues are behind us now, and we are delivering both your paper and website updates in a timely manner.
Our business continues to go through major changes; accordingly, our audience growth is changing as well. While our print circulation has declined some, we continue to reach more people than ever before with our combined print and digital formats. New readers visit our website and use our electronic edition every day. We know that to keep our readership growing it is imperative that we have news and information when you want it, where you want it, in the format you prefer.
In the past, the Times Free Press has produced many of our own community events. Going forward, we will be doing fewer of these events but keeping some of your favorites, such as Best of the Best and Best of Preps, and trying to make them even more meaningful. We will continue to improve some of our special magazines (Chatter, Edge and Get Out) to make sure we are covering the topics that are most relevant to you.
We also want to work with the community to make Chattanooga the best community it can be. We will continue to work with many nonprofit organizations to find ways to help these organizations that are a key part of making our city great. For us to continue to prosper, our community needs to grow, and we want to help make that happen.
That doesn't mean every story will be positive or something with which you agree. But we will be involved in the community, providing thorough news coverage that is fair, balanced and as timely as possible.
It continues to be an honor and a privilege to be in Chattanooga as the president of the Times Free Press, and I thank you for being our customer.