We Hear You Now, Monrovia

We thank you for our feedback and look forward to making this your paper for the next 20 years. – Photo by Terry Miller / Beacon Media News

By Terry Miller and Fabiola Diaz

Monrovia Weekly held an open forum on June 27 for the community — to listen to your hopes and concerns as the adjudicated voice of Monrovia.

We were delighted with the forum turnout at the Community Center and even more motivated to hear your invaluable input and insight.

More than anything, we gather, thanks to your input, that the power of the printed press endures notwithstanding the advent of new technologies.

Here’s what we heard and hope to implement in coming months:

Increase visibility by including more pick up locations around the city. We will also publish these drop sites.

We heard that you wanted more local school information including features on individual schools. We also heard you wanted more local business news, specifically on Old Town and new business joining the community. Many of our readers expressed a desire to see a column similar to Pam Fitzpatrick’s Old Town Report.

We also noted that you want balanced, hard hitting news — strong coverage of City Hall and council — and an added a link to the City Manager’s Weekly Update on our website.

We discussed having more columnists, like local historian and City Treasurer Steve Baker to embrace the past with his vast knowledge of Monrovia’s history.

Other items included a desire for a more in-depth calendar of local events, both in print and online, feature pieces on movers and shakers in town, and a desire to see more photographs and coverage of events around town.

In the coming weeks, we will be reaching out and sitting down with community members to address the shared concerns and input to improve Monrovia Weekly’s print and digital products.

We hope that our increased visibility and in-depth local stories will generate more community interest and therefore be a consistent, well-respected journal for readers and an exceptional vehicle for local businesses to reach out to their neighbors.

Thank you all for attending the forum last month and those of you who wrote to us. We look forward to working with you as we embark on this journey. Please contact us with any additional thoughts: editorial@beaconmedianews.com or tmiller@beaconmedianews.com. Or, give us a call at (626) 301-1010.

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