Subtle format changes aim to be 'reader friendly'

The perennial challenge of aging – in a person or in a business – is renewal, the continuous reinvention of the self, both physical and spiritual, that maintains forward momentum in life, in relationships and in commerce.
Efforts toward self-improvement are intensified in conjunction with significant birthdays or anniversaries. We work with particular resolution when these milestones are numbers ending in five or zero.
As it happens, I am celebrating both types of milestones this year.
As Springfield Business Journal marks its 25th anniversary, the staff is striving to freshen this weekly newspaper’s appearance and strengthen its communication with the reader community that makes this publication viable. It is a tool for you and a livelihood for us. It can’t be one without the other.
Rather than embark on a radical format change, which is the publication version of a major facelift, we have committed to continuous “tweaking.” These small changes are meant to be evolution rather than revolution.
So, although we want you to notice our efforts to freshen SBJ’s pages and layouts to make the paper more reader friendly and easier for you to find the information you want and need, we don’t want to undermine what works for you already. It’s an experimental process.
Making changes also helps keep our work interesting. Doing everything the same way every week, month after month, year after year, brings a slow and certain demise for a business – if the staff doesn’t die of boredom first.
Graphic artists and page designers Brandon Sanders, Aaron Scott and Heather Mosely are working with me and the entire Business Journal team to come up with solutions that improve SBJ without rocking your world and ours.
How do you like the new page headings that debuted last week? We have also implemented a simple change to give additional emphasis to what we call “pull quotes.”
The editorial staff asked me to notify you that there are more changes in store in coming weeks. Our goal is for you to think that we are looking great and communicating with you better. The fact that you may not be able to say exactly what it is that has changed is what we strive for: the mark of an excellent cosmetic procedure.

Wanted: letters
A longtime reader recently commented to me that he did not think that we accepted letters to the editor. He could not remember seeing them in the Business Journal.
Not true! I retorted. We cry out for letters from readers. Please tell us what you like, what you don’t like, what you think we left out, what you think we ought to be doing. We also want to hear from you on your views of events in Springfield and southwest Missouri – regardless of whether you are commenting on our coverage.
I know you care even if you don’t write. We get your phone calls. You mention things to us when we are out and about town.
When our lack of mail (other than news releases) was the topic at an informal meeting last week, we determined that when we did have a letter, we did not clearly distinguish it from other commentary on the opinion pages. Also, we have not been running a regular boxed plea for letters. Both of these things could change, we decided. It will, we promised.
I like to read letters in various publications, and I know you do, too, so drop us a line and get something off your chest right now.
Please clearly indicate the correspondence as a letter to the editor, and be sure to include your name and phone number so we can verify authorship and confirm your permission to publish. We also reserve the right to edit for length, style, grammar, spelling and appropriate language.
We will gladly accept letters to the editor by regular mail to: Editorial Staff, Springfield Business Journal, 313 Park Central West, Springfield, MO 65806 or by e-mail to sbj@sbj.net.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Dianne Elizabeth is publisher and president of Springfield Business Journal Inc.
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