A New Year and A New Era

With the close of 2008, The Oakland Press looks ahead to a new era in journalism: Citizen Journalism, an intense effort to get the community involved in our product.

Newspapers have been guilty to some degree of taking their audiences for granted, but the truth is that unless we involve more readers in the newspaper, interest will slip away.

Oakland Press editors are gearing up for working more closely with "citizen journalists" to bring more community news into our news pages and onto our Web site.

We are working on setting guidelines and standards to work more with members of the community.

Citizen journalism is not without troubled waters. Some may use it to further a political agenda, vendetta or their own business. These are areas that we as editors will need to keep watch for.

But overall, this is an opportunity to bring fresh eyes to news, and see things that we might may not otherwise be privy to.

Happy New Year to Oakland Press readers!