Reestablishing contact with Kind Readers in the Fort Smith region

On June 27, the fine folks at The Times Record in Fort Smith and The Morning News in Northwest Arkansas ended my almost eight years of employment as their business editor. Broad layoffs was the reason for my being encouraged to cash out, clean up and carry my happy tail out the door. (Stephens Media, the parent company of The Times Record and The Morning News, has since laid off many more folks from its several newspaper operations in the state.)

My first emotion was that of a 100 percent prescient fortune teller who was just told he couldn’t get a ticket for that maiden voyage of the Titanic. Upon further reflection, my first emotion has also been my second, third and fourth emotional response. There are some days I’m tempted to send a “Thank You” note to what remains of the management at Stephens Media.

To be sure, I am genuinely grateful for the almost 10 years of combined employment with Donrey Media (the previous owners of the Times Record) and Stephens Media. It was a tremendous learning experience. Watching the people, politics and peculiarities of the Fort Smith area for the past 16 years (including six years employed by the Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce) has been fun, frustrating and fulfilling. This truly is a great place to live, work and play — even with its imperfections.

It is the dynamic lessons learned in those past 16 years that provide me, in my humble opinion, a strong base from which I now partner with Tom Kirkham in the delivery of The City Wire.

We sat down over enchiladas and rellenos on Aug. 5 to brainstorm about a possible collaboration in which he and his employees at Kirkham Systems and yours truly could create an alternative source for regional news and information. It might have been the onset of indigestion, but before the lunch hour expired, we became kindred spirits, so to speak, in the pursuit of what is now The City Wire.

But what is The City Wire?

Good question. In the midst of answering that question, Kirkham e-mailed three short paragraphs that best answers the question. It took a few days for this former newspaper jockey to accept the fact that a computer guy had pieced together a much better — and shorter! — answer. And after placing ego aside, the decision was made to include Kirkham’s insight: “Welcome to The City Wire, 2.0!
 
“We launched The City Wire a couple of years ago with the hopes it would be Our Community, Online. During this time, thousands of site visitors have met here to get movie listings, create a profile of their business or restaurant, list their church, and view or create events on The City Wire. All of the content was created by you, the visitor.
 
“Now, I am proud to welcome Michael Tilley as a partner and editor of The City Wire.  With Michael’s experienced insight, The City Wire is now set to deliver area news we hope you will find distinct and refreshing from other sources of information. As The City Wire matures, Tilley and other contributors will bring their perspective on business, society, events and other happenings from around the area. They also will report on issues and events from outside the area that have a direct impact on our lives in the Fort Smith region.
 
“Adding the editorial content to the community site will deliver the complete site as I and others envisioned it a few years ago. Please feel free to review businesses, restaurants, and other organizations on the site. Start your blog or add your existing blog; list something for sale in the classifieds section; comment on articles and practically anything published on The City Wire. The Internet is about two-way communication, not one-way, take-it-or-leave-it information and news. We welcome your opinions and participation in Our Community, Online.”

By way of a deeper explanation, the “home” page of The City Wire is populated with several content areas. Let’s briefly discuss four of those.

The Local Wire
This section is intended to provide “quick and dirty” news, information and/or commentary about issues and events The City Wire staff believes are important to residents of the Fort Smith region.

Outside The Wire
It is in this section The City Wire staff attempts to bring you “Gee-Whiz” items that also contain, we hope, some valuable and/or stimulating information.

The Community Wire
This section is reserved for longer stories about the Fort Smith region, and weekly and monthly essays and columns from what we believe will be an impressive list of contributors. We plan to offer informative and entertaining reporting on regional matters, people and events in this section. Watch close!

Guest Commentary
It will be what it says. We’ll accept guest commentary from just about anyone as long as the commentary is smart, professional and 99.9 percent devoid of crass commercialism.

So, there you are. The City Wire. Enjoy.

It’s so nice to be back in communication with the thousands of Kind Readers in the Fort Smith area. We look forward to your suggestions, criticisms, insight and other forms of creative involvement that only the flexibility of The City Wire will allow.