I had an interesting and informative exchange with readers yesterday on RegisterCitizen.Com. CLICK HERE to see the whole thing.

We received many good story ideas, and thoughts on aspects of the news, in general, on which our reporters and editors should focus.

But we also got some great questions and feedback about the operation of RegisterCitizen.Com and The Register Citizen.

Reporting suggestions included:

* More specifics about what the Winsted police focus on, from drivers using cell phones to speeding in particular neighborhoods.

* Go beyond the statistics for unemployment and provide an in-depth analysis of what it is like to be looking for a job in Northwest Connecticut and the impact that is having on some families.

* Provide a more in-depth analysis and continue to follow the issue of sex offenders living in particular neighborhoods and near schoolchildren.

* Further examine the heroin problem in Torrington and how it has led to crime and overdoses.

* Stay on top of and examine the unfolding changes in the Winsted school system, as parents are very concerned about what is happening.

Feedback about our news gathering and policies included:

* Loud and clear, spelling and grammar mistakes were the #1 thing mentioned as a problem.

* The second biggest concern was how to clean up some of the nasty and/or abusive comments that make it into Sound Off and story comments online. Some suggested requiring that readers go through a registration process before being allowed to comment.

* Others said they'd like to see less emphasis/space devoted to national news.

* A reader questioned why we get beat sometimes by the competing daily newspaper out of Waterbury. The choice of a new assistant school superintendent in Torrington was cited.

* Support was expressed for our new emphasis on reporting every news story on RegisterCitizen.Com first, as soon as we've confirmed it. And in this new environment, impatience was expressed over being an hour later than other news sources yesterday morning, for example, to report that a Goshen man had died from injuries in a car accident the night before.

* Concern was expressed over the price of paid obituaries.

* Concern was expressed over the perception of bias in some of our crime reporting, where the accused is treated in stories as though they are guilty. Concern was also expressed

* Support was expressed for our weekly newspaper, "Good News About Torrington," and for reporting more positive news and human interest stories in The Register Citizen.

* Concern was expressed that sexual abuse stories include too many details, which are harmful to victims and families and not appropriate for young readers.

* Concern was expressed over how Web site moderators decide which comments to remove and which comments to leave up on the site.

* The suggestion was made to open the pages of The Register Citizen and space on RegisterCitizen.Com to more "citizen journalism."

* A question was raised about whether police blotter items should remain online indefinitely when in some cases the original charges end up being dropped.

* A reader suggested having an online listing of local movie theater times.

See the original article for some of my responses. Stay tuned for follow-up on many of these other great suggestions and ideas.

I had the opportunity recently to record a Podcast interview with Dr. Steven Minkler for his class on mass media at Northwestern Connecticut Community College.

We discussed the role of local media and how it is changing, particularly how a traditional newspaper business such as The Register Citizen is transforming into a multimedia company.

Click below to listen.

Unit_04_DeRienzo.mp3

If you are on Twitter, or have been thinking about it, we have you covered in terms of local news and information.

Foothills Media Group, including The Register Citizen, Foothills Trader and weekly newspapers, quarterly magazines and Web sites, has the following feeds running on Twitter. Click on the links below to start following them for links to breaking news stories as well as exclusive updates on local news and information that aren't available anywhere else.

The Register Citizen

www.twitter.com/registercitizen

Register Citizen Sports

www.twitter.com/nwctsports

Foothills Trader

www.twitter.com/shopfoothills

Litchfield County Mom

www.twitter.com/litchfieldmom

The Litchfield News

www.twitter.com/litchfieldweb

The Avon News

www.twitter.com/theavonnews

The Canton News

www.twitter.com/thecantonnews

The Granby News

www.twitter.com/thegranbynews

The Simsbury News

www.twitter.com/thesimsburynews

Jan. 1, 2010

To Our Readers:

On behalf of our entire team here at The Register Citizen, we hope that you have had a happy holiday season and we wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

We are happy to be producing a newspaper for you at the start of 2010 that is much improved compared to the start of 2009, and we hope you’ll agree that is the case.

At the same time, we see many areas, every day, where we can and will do a better job. We share your frustration with spelling, grammar and proofreading errors. And we’ve seen far too many missed opportunities to go deeper into a local news story and leave fewer questions unanswered.

Over the past year, we have again expanded local news and local sports content, particularly in our Sunday paper, and added new features such as locally themed crossword puzzles and word searches every day.

No longer are we presenting the news only once a day, and only on newsprint. You can get breaking news at all hours at www.registercitizen.com. You can even sign up to receive daily headlines and breaking local news alerts by email.

And readers of The Register Citizen have turned to the story commenting function of our Web site in droves, 24/7, to participate in “Sound Off” and debate the issues of the day with each other.

In 2010, expect to see our online presence continue to grow, with an expansion of local breaking news alerts and the launch of local news videos.

Our commitment to improving the print edition of The Register Citizen is stronger than ever, and we are eager to hear from you about what is wrong, what is right, what is missing. Our editor, Jordan Fenster, can be reached at jfenster@registercitizen.com or 860-489-3121, ext. 333. Our managing editor, Liz Strillacci, can be reached at estrillacci@registercitizen.com, or 860-489-3121, ext. 334.

We also recognize that none of this is of use to you if you are not getting your copy of the newspaper on time, and where you want it. Or if dealing with your bill or requesting a vacation stop is so aggravating that you don’t want to pick up the phone. If you ever have trouble resolving a problem with your delivery or your bill, please don’t hesitate to contact our circulation director, Timothy Lee, directly at 860-489-3121, ext. 370.

And as always, please feel free to contact me directly with any question, problem or suggestion relating to your newspaper and how we can do a better job serving you.

Matt DeRienzo

Publisher, The Register Citizen

mderienzo@registercitizen.com

860-489-3121, ext. 350

Do you or your organization, church or club have a community event that needs publicity?

Our recent expansion of the online presence for our weekly newspapers, Good News About Torrington, the Thomaston Express, The Granby News, The Avon News, The Canton News and The Simsbury News, makes it easier than ever to spread the word, and to a wider audience in Northwest Connecticut and the Farmington Valley.

Our new Web sites have an interactive, self-service community events calendar. All you have to do is CLICK HERE and enter all of the information for your event, including time, date, contact number and any details you want to provide. You can even upload a photo to go with it.

The service is completely free, and in the process of adding your event to our online calendar, the editors of The Register Citizen and our weekly newspapers will be notified automatically so they can include your event in upcoming print editions of our newspapers as well.

And if you are a fan of The Foothills Trader, you should know that it has a new Web site, too, and its own interactive calendar. CLICK HERE to submit events to the Foothills online calendar for an audience that extends from Salisbury to Watertown and from Sharon to Simsbury.

The front page of this morning’s Register Citizen includes the announcement of a new name for the local organization – of which I serve as publisher – that publishes this newspaper and others in Northwest Connecticut and the Farmington Valley. (CLICK HERE for story.)

What does this mean for the average reader of The Register Citizen? In terms of changes to how the paper is run or what it contains, nothing, really. We continue to look for ways all the time to expand the amount and quality of local news and local sports content that we provide to readers seven mornings a week in print and 24/7 online.

The christening of “Foothills Media Group” is, however, a reflection of how we’ve adapted to changes in technology, changes in readers’ habits and lifestyles, and the changes our advertisers have had to make to adjust to both of those things.

Here’s an example of how quickly we have changed to adapt to these trends. Barely two years ago, we needed no local corporate “name.” We were The Register Citizen and the Foothills Trader. That’s it.

We saw a need and opportunity to help advertisers reach every home in Torrington – and a void in “positive” community news – and so we launched the weekly Good News About Torrington.

Then we took over management of the Thomaston Express, a weekly newspaper with decades of history in providing local news coverage for that town. It was a great fit for us, on the edge of The Register Citizen’s coverage area and also complementing the reach of the Foothills Trader.

As the Hartford Courant cut back significantly on local news coverage, and we noticed how well the weekly newspaper model was serving both readers and advertisers, we stepped up to launch The Granby News, which is mailed to every home in Granby and East Granby and ended up filling a huge void in local coverage in those communities.

In the meantime, RegisterCitizen.Com was re-launched, exploded in popularity and extended the daily newspaper’s household penetration in Northwest Connecticut far beyond the daily print edition and in a more dynamic, targeted format.

We partnered with the #1-trafficked Web site in the country, Yahoo!, for employment advertising and for the sale of Yahoo! home page advertising targeted directly to local Web site visitors and their viewing and spending habits.

We expanded into glossy-cover magazines, such as the twice-a-year events guide “Every Town Has a Green,” that offer readers and advertisers more shelf life than the daily newspaper.

We started offering advertisers full-color commercial printing and zip code-targeted delivery of glossy advertising fliers, at a fraction of the cost they would otherwise pay for postage alone.

And we found unique ways – such as LitchfieldCountyMom.Com and the quarterly magazine that accompanies it – to serve key demographics within our community with targeted formats that were unprecedented in this area.

Today we are announcing the launch of three new weekly newspapers – in the growing, under-served Farmington Valley towns of Canton, Avon and Simsbury. CLICK HERE for story.

In the coming weeks, we will be unveiling a dynamic online presence for these new weeklies and our existing ones. And we’ll be launching FoothillsTrader.Com, extending our popular regional shopper brand onto the Web.

That’s why, in a nutshell, that “The Register Citizen and the Foothills Trader” doesn’t come close anymore to describing everything we do here to blanket Northwest Connecticut and the Farmington Valley with local news, information and a range of option for advertisers.

Welcome to “Foothills Media Group.”

Matt DeRienzo is publisher of The Register Citizen. He can be reached at 860-489-3121, ext. 350, or by email at mderienzo@registercitizen.com. For more, read his blog at www.registercitizen.com/blogs.

We've made some important changes and additions to the leadership team at The Register Citizen and its sister publications.

CLICK HERE to read more.

How are we doing? Well, thanks for asking
If I had a dollar for every casual conversation these days that starts with or turns to the woes of the newspaper industry, I’d have enough money to, well, buy a few dozen friends a subscription, at least.

On a personal note, I am pleased to announce an addition to my family.

Cash Reto DeRienzo was born at 11:49 a.m. yesterday, in the car on the way to New Milford Hospital!

He weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces, and was 19.25 inches long. He joins a very excited sister, Marley, age 2 1/2.

I will be taking a few days off from my duties as publisher to enjoy my new son.

Give Your Employees A Chance To Give This Fall

As co-chairmen of the United Way of Northwest Connecticut campaign this year, Litchfield Bancorp Executive Vice President Tom Villanova and I are feeling the pressure. Demand for services at the 24 local agencies and nonprofit organizations the United Way supports has grown tremendously over the past year due to the significant downturn in the economy.