Michael Caldwell: Some things shouldn’t change

Published 9:48 am Thursday, October 24, 2013

Famed playwright William Shakespeare asked, “What’s in a name?” in Romeo and Juliet. Although I am certainly not as eloquent of a writer as the Bard, I’ve been asking a similar question.

Unlike Shakespeare, the object of my query has been Leader Publications’ annual Horizons edition. For those who aren’t familiar, Horizons is a 100-plus page special section that comes out the last Thursday in February. It showcases the best the region has to offer in terms of compelling human-interest stories and business marketing.

One of the changes we plan to implement this year is to eliminate individual sections, instead focusing solely on stories and photography our readers will enjoy rather than creating arbitrary sections that dictate the content.

The quality of a story should drive our decisions and that hasn’t been the case. Another idea we discussed is whether or not we should change the name, serving somewhat as fresh start with this refined direction.

The section has been called Horizons for more than 30 years. The newspaper that I most recently worked at had a similar section called Profile. Other newspapers feature names like Connections, Progress or Impressions. Which name is the best? That is difficult to say. There may not be a right answer.

In the end, we chose to keep the Horizons name because of the strong branding created by three decades of hard work and the fact that the community very much identifies with the concept of great things are to come.

Our goal is to make this the best special section ever produced by Leader Publications, but we need your help. What type of stories would you like to read about? Who is the most interesting person you know? What segment of the community is being ignored? Who do you know that goes above and beyond the call of duty, always putting the community first?

We want to find Michiana’s unsung heroes and make sure their praises are, in fact, sung very loudly and proudly. These are the people who we want to showcase because they are the most deserving and least likely to seek attention. The communities that Leader Publications serves are all unique but also share many common threads. All have a rich past, a progressive present and a bright future.

That is exactly what Horizons should embody.

Michael Caldwell is publisher/president of Leader Publications LLC. He can be reached at (269) 683-7700 or by email at mike.caldwell@leaderpub.com.