Craig Brown in 1999, 2013 and Tuesday. (The Columbian)
Notice anything different about me this week?
After nine years, I updated my column mugshot this week when Photo Editor Amanda Cowan held picture day to get photos of employees who are new or, like me, hadn’t been seen in the photo studio for quite a while.
We use the photos in a variety of internal and external communications. For example, in our online Microsoft Teams chats, you can see a photo of the person who is messaging you. Same with email. And, of course, anyone who reads a Columbian staff column sees a mugshot of the author, and contact information, displayed at the bottom of the story. So you’ll see several staff mugshots that have been updated.
For fun, I compared it with my first Columbian mugshot, from 1999. Wow, I had brown hair, and a lot more of it, back in those days!
Future projects
With the primary election and the Clark County Fair behind us, we’ve been spending a lot of time and energy working on some future projects that I think you are going to enjoy:
On Sunday, Aug. 21, our community-funded transportation reporter, William Seekamp, offers the first part of what is planned to be an occasional series about the history of the Interstate Bridge and how it came to be. Before the bridge opened in 1917, the trip between Oregon and Vancouver required a ferry ride. In those days, Main Street ended at the river; several blocks of downtown were lost in later years due to construction of the freeway and state Highway 14. The original bridge came with both light rail, in the form of electric trolleys, and tolls, 5 cents for either a horse or an automobile. I wonder when the last horse rider paid a toll?
On Sunday, Aug. 27, our entire sports team takes a look at the fall high school sports season. They’ve been busy producing a special section with a page devoted to each high school football team in the region, plus additional content. For the front page, Assistant Sports Editor Tim Martinez used our newly digitized archives to produce a very interesting story about the history of the Kiggins Bowl, Vancouver’s classic sports venue. Even if you’re not a regular follower of high school football, you will enjoy it.
Another special project is our annual Breast Cancer Awareness Month special section, due to publish Sunday, Oct. 9. Features Editor Erin Middlewood is working with an expanded team on a variety of interesting stories, including the popular feature where breast cancer survivors and those still battling the disease offer their best advice and tips to people who are on a cancer journey. (There’s still time to contribute; email erin.middlewood@columbian.com.)
We have several other long-lead-time stories in the works, too, including a data-driven investigative story coming from our new community-funded homelessness and affordable housing reporting team of Dylan Jeffries and Kelsey Turner. It should be in print by early fall.
Because we have all of these things rolling, I was happy to be invited to a meeting this week where we discussed improving promotion of our content. We want to let our customers know when we have the really good stuff, so they don’t miss it. And, of course, we also want to let our would-be customers know that they are missing out.
Metro Editor Mark Bowder will be the newsroom representative on the content promotion committee, which will use a variety of techniques to accomplish its job. There’s the tried-and-true, such as ads in the print edition and printed cards that go on news racks, and the new methods, such as our newsletters and social media channels, to get the word out. Watch for them soon.
We’re excited to do good local journalism, and also excited to tell you about it.
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