Coming to the Journal of Business from the Spokesman-Review newspaper 25 years ago—and, my, how that time has flown—probably the biggest adjustment for me as a reporter was not being able to communicate with readers on a daily basis.

That changed, thankfully, about 14 years ago when we launched our Email Update service as a way to alert subscribers almost instantaneously about significant breaking news. We took what I consider an even bigger step forward at the beginning of this week when we kicked off our Morning Edition, a daily compilation of local and regional news happenings.

Morning Edition is going out initially to the thousands of mostly Journal print-edition subscribers who also have signed up over the years to receive our Email Updates, and we hope to grow it from there by becoming recognized through word-of-mouth as a quick-read daily provider of news on key business happenings here.

As with our print edition, we intend to place top priority on what’s occurring in Spokane and Kootenai counties, but—for regional perspective—we’ll also include reports on breaking business news throughout Washington and in larger markets in Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana.

Along with breaking news, Morning Edition will enable us to give our readers more immediate information about hirings, promotions, accreditations, awards, and philanthropic gifts, focusing on the people and organizations that ultimately drive our economy. It also will help us to provide readers more regular reminders about upcoming meetings or conferences they might want to attend.

Because the Journal‘s Morning Edition is in its infancy, we envision we’ll enhance its content mix over time, based on reader feedback and out of a desire to give readers as comprehensive a day-to-day snapshot as possible of the forces and people shaping our business environment. 

We encourage you to let us know what you think of it and how we might improve it. 

The launch of our Morning Edition is a natural evolution for the Journal as we strive to keep pace with the sweeping changes transforming the news media industry and to serve our readers through as many communication channels as possible.

The Journal was founded in 1986 as a bi-weekly business newspaper, publishing every other week, which was appropriate for a market of this size. That frequency has served it well over the years, even through the emergence and fast growth of the Internet and the inexorable rise of digital technology as a popular platform for news dissemination.

To be sure, the printed edition still is our flagship, unlike some publications that have discontinued their hard-copy products or relegated them to secondary status behind their online offerings, and we remain dedicated to keeping it vital long into the future. Nevertheless, as reading habits change and mobile digital devices become more ubiqitious, we appreciate fully the mandate we have to serve our readers through as many delivery platforms as possible, and we embrace the challenge.

We’re excited about the potential for our Morning Edition, as the next step in that evolution, and we hope you find it to be of value.