Movin’ on up

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

More changes afoot here at the World Headquarters of the Reno News & Review. Welcome aboard Peter Thompson as arts editor. Peter is one of the most talented writers I’ve worked with, and he’s also got some serious editing chops, having worked at various national publications of ill-repute. Kat Kerlin is getting kicked upstairs. She’s going to take a new position we call Special Projects Editor.

Special Projects Editor Kerlin will be in charge of certain aspects of the newspaper. In short, the Reno News & Review will no longer have special advertising sections in which the advertising side of the operation provides content. General manager John Murphy and I basically decided that with this one change we could improve the overall quality of the newspaper, adding independent, well-written and relevant stories to our supplements, freeing up the business side of the paper to focus on the things they should focus on. Kat, who gained much of her experience in the business at E! The Environmental Magazine, will also take over the “Green” section of the regular paper.

This is going to be fun. Editors (and readers) can never tell for sure exactly what new directions publications will go in when people are added or subtracted from the equation. I’m about half nervous at actually having a full staff. But in these days, when other newspaper operations are cutting staff and removing sections of their newspapers, it’s refreshing to know that this weekly newspaper has enough community support, not just to survive, but to grow. (I was saddened to see RG-J kill Calendar this week. They started that section in order to destroy the RN&R, and I enjoyed watching them throw good money after bad for the last decade or so. And what’s this McClatchy rumor?)

Along other lines, would the person who invited me to climb to the top of the mountain for Filet of Soul please call me again? I inadvertently erased the voicemail.