Despite a relatively balmy October to date, I believe it is safe to say that fall is upon us. Sure, we’ve been walking the boardwalk in T-shirts for longer than seems seasonably appropriate, and it is true that the temperature in the subway hasn’t yet accommodated to scarves. But look at those red and golden hues on the trees, relish in the maple keys scattered along East End streets, notice the season’s last crush of construction, clanging away on Queen Street East. Change. It’s here.
Those fall feelings of renewal, harvest, and hard work have been felt quite acutely at the Beach Metro News over the last several weeks.
Some of you may have noticed that our masthead has changed. We bid farewell to our long-standing editor, Jon Muldoon, and have been busy welcoming new faces to our team of veteran employees and volunteers.
Our new reporter, Lara O’Keefe is a sports junkie with a golden retriever named Andi. Sarah Dann, our new advertising manager, will be a familiar name and face to many of you as a life-long Beacher.
I’m your new editor. You’ve likely seen me around the Beach over the last year working as your reporter, taking photographs and conducting interviews at your school, work, community celebration, or even your home.
As a member of the audience at numerous community town halls and development meetings – the Beach, as you know, has a lot of the latter – I have been consistently encouraged by the level of engagement and community commitment that is found here in the East End. While people who live in some Toronto neighbourhoods might not know that a development meeting or town hall is taking place, here in the Beach, residents not only know about meetings, they show up having done their homework.
All of this is to say that a neighbourhood like the Beach – a lake front ‘village in a city’, as many of you like to say, with scores of artists, musicians, and athletes – is a rare bird. It is a privilege to be tasked with keeping this neighbourhood informed about the things the community needs to know, and also to tell the in-depth, hyper-local stories you won’t find elsewhere.
To that end, I’d like to invite you to tell me what you’d like to see in this paper. What would you like to read about? How could we improve? A community newspaper is best when it’s a reflection of the community, so tell me: Do you see yourself in Beach Metro News? And if not, what sorts of stories could we be telling that would speak to you?
The media landscape is without question in flux, but a community paper with a history as rich – and a readership as loyal – as the Beach Metro News won’t be going out of style anytime soon. Our aim is to pay careful attention to our institutional memory while mastering new digital realms, and we’re excited to continue this momentum of fall renewal for many seasons to come.
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