This week marks the beginning of our two-part Year in Review stories, when we look back at all of the news and sports stories that made headlines in 2013.
We covered many momentous events over the past 12 months, not the least of which was our own change of address. In February, Spotlight News moved from our long-standing Adams Street location to our new home at 341 Delaware Ave., on just the other side of the Four Corners. The distance between the two buildings was short, but the history we packed up to take to the new location was decades long.
We invited the public to see our new building at an open house in May, and we were heartened by the kind words from our longtime readers, local business owners and public officials. They made it clear to us that we were doing our jobs, and doing them well.
The change in location coincided with a much tougher decision – suspending our Saratoga and Schenectady County editions at the end of February. We committed a lot of time and resources to giving residents in those counties the same quality coverage we gave to our Albany County readers, and it was difficult to pull the plug. But in the end, we felt it was the best way to focus our resources. In that way, we’re no different than other newspapers that have faced similarly tough decisions in their fight to stay afloat in a sea of increasing competition from Internet news sources. We hope to return to these communities at some point in the future, but for now, our task remains the same – to provide our Albany County readers with the quality news and sports coverage they have come to expect from us.
The people in charge of that task also changed in October 2013 when design and niche editor Kristen Roberts moved into the managing editor’s chair, and longtime sports editor Rob Jonas added associate editor to his title. With a combined total of 20 years of experience working at The Spotlight, Roberts and Jonas are very familiar with what’s going on in this corner of the Capital District, as well as what it takes to put out a quality paper every week.
In 2013, we also added a Lifestyles section, which was the culmination of months of planning. The new section features enhanced coverage of local arts and entertainment news and calendar listings within your communities. The colorful and easy-to-follow design of the new section sets it apart from what many weeklies are doing these days and shows that, even in financially strapped times, we are a forward-thinking newspaper. The Lifestyles section will not print for the next two editions over the holidays but will return Jan. 8.
So much has changed over the past 12 months, but the one constant has been our dedication to keeping our readers informed about what’s going on in their communities so you can be sure to expect more great news and lifestyles coverage in the year to come.