FAIR GAME:

There are two ways to be reading your Daily Pilot this morning.

First is the good, old-fashioned way. Newsprint in hand, resulting in rub-off ink on your fingers. Turning those pages, attempting to fold them back and even in half again to get to that story you want to read.

And then, when you’re done, attempting to unravel the mess you’ve created as you try to get to the next page.

When you’re completely finished, you try to refold the paper back into something that’s even close to resembling the product that was delivered to your home that morning.

You know the drill, and it’s not that easy.

Still, it’s the way most of us seem to prefer it.

The second choice, of course, is to go to www.dailypilot.com.

Even an old newspaper guy, with ink in his blood, realizes this alternative represents the future.

Some time ago we began refocusing much of the way we do business on our Web presence.

Today, we’re unveiling the fruits of that labor on a completely redesigned and updated site.

You’ll notice a tune-up, with new navigation. Hopefully, you’ll also see the better packaging and additional content.

But what I’m most excited about is this — we’ve made the Daily Pilot website the community’s website.

Here’s what I mean. Maybe you’re part of a club or organization you wish we’d do a story on or maybe even cover an event for.

You don’t need to call me up and beg me to have a reporter and a photographer sent over.

Now, you cover the event yourself and you even shoot your own pictures.

Then you simply download them on to our site, and we reverse publish the best and most pertinent back into the printed product.

It’s called citizen journalism. You become contributors.

Maybe your son or daughter plays on a local high school team. And maybe it’s even a freshman or junior varsity team.

You or the coach writes a story and supplies the facts, someone else takes the picture and that team is now covered.

My goal, with your help, is to increase our local sports coverage.

I’d like nothing better than for every coach, at every level, to participate with us.

Again, we’ll reverse publish into the printed product.

Maybe Tuesdays become freshman sports day. Wednesdays might be JV day.

Up to this point both have been mostly ignored.

Same goes for AYSO or Little League, club volleyball or swimming.

When it happens, you let us know.

Get the drift?

And we’ve made it easy. All the local high schools have their own pages on our site.

The same can be true with virtually every other school and sports program in our circulation area.

But maybe you’re a part of the band, into performing arts or in a reading club.

There’s nothing that prohibits us from working with you, too. Community organizations, homeowners associations and so on.

Want something in our calendar? Post it yourself. Imagine that, a community calendar that everyone can reference.

It’s your community and your site. With your help, we’ll make it great.

Remember, www.dailypilot.com.

Let me know what you think.

TOM JOHNSON is the publisher. Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at (714) 966-4664 or send story ideas to [email protected].