I am happy to introduce to our readers today a newly designed and visually improved The Post-Searchlight. Our staff has worked hard over the past several months to update, re-design, and organize your newspaper and today’s edition is a result of that work.

As with anything that you have become accustomed to and comfortable with, the new look and arrangement of The Post-Searchlight isn’t as familiar, but I hope that you will enjoy the ease of use and readability.

One of the major goals we set for ourselves with the undertaking of this project was to better compartmentalize the information and stories that we provide to you.  We also wanted to expand our inclusion of public records in the newspaper each edition.

These goals were more mechanical in nature and led to one overall, important objective — we wanted to provide the very best coverage of local news, happenings, opinion (both yours and ours), and entertainment in a user-friendly, visually appealing package.

We also tried to organize the newspaper that would enable a reader to gain a good understanding of the happenings of Bainbridge and Decatur County, whether they have two minutes or two hours to spend.

If it is the community calendar that most interests you, an expanded calendar of events, including church activities, will be included in every issue on Page 2A. Education and school news will always appear on page 5A in Wednesday editions. And our expanded public records coverage will always be on Page 8A in all editions.

Speaking of public records, I believe inclusion of an in depth public records section is one of the main responsibilities of any community newspaper. Whether it is arrest reports, land transactions, marriage licenses, restaurant inspection scores or business licenses, it’s our obligation to provide our readers with this information.

Since 1907, The Post-Searchlight has chronicled events and news, births and deaths, marriages and divorces, arrests and convictions, of Bainbridge and Decatur County. If not for the newspaper, the history of our community would be much more difficult to find and reference.

It is our intention to carry forward the foundation laid and the excellent work done by the Griffin family for the first 101 years of The Post-Searchlight. Hardly a week goes by that either someone on our staff or one of our readers does not reference a past issue of the newspaper. It could be from the 1930s, 1950s, or last week.

The responsibility to record and chronicle our history, and what happened yesterday is now our history, is one that I take very seriously and am happy to have.

I would you love to hear your thoughts on our new design. Please let me know at jeff.findley@thepostsearchlight.com.