I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to the Lake Orion community.
My name is Dan Shriner and I will be the editor of The Lake Orion Review for awhile. Some of you may know me. I was the editor of The Oxford Leader several years ago before I moved on to try some other things, which I believe have made me a better journalist. That is why I am happy to return to Sherman Publications.
I have worked for newspapers as a reporter and editor for 30 years, most of the time at The Flint Journal. I have witnessed the steady demise of the daily newspapers in America, often because the newspapers were not responsible to their readership and community.
I recall once hearing a publisher tell a group of reporters that a newspaper is not dependent upon its reporters. That publisher is no longer in the business and that newspaper is all but dead. He believed that newspapers were bought for their ads and the content of the paper was not relevant to sales or to the readers.
His beliefs were not so rare. Daily newspapers throughout the U.S. have tried to be everything to everyone and it doesn’t work. There are too many sources of information now and when newspapers lose their focus regarding reporting local news, they are no longer relevant in their communities. I would have thought that since they are called NEWSpapers that news would be the focus. That is often not true.
This is why I am proud to work at Sherman Publications. The Sherman family is dedicated to being your local newspaper that covers community news. Those of you who read The Lake Orion Review do so because you know you can rely on this publication to provide you with the news, photos, advertisements and classified ads that you cannot find in daily newspapers or on the Internet.
I am proud that this newspaper and what we report has a much greater direct affect on your lives than 90 percent of what you read in a daily newspaper or on the Internet.
I know some of you at times will say that newspapers are negative. Sometimes news is negative. But, if you look at the stories in our newspaper you will find the overwhelming majority are about the positive things going on in your schools and community.
So, my task is to make The Lake Orion Review a better publication than it is now and to help the staff to be better editors, reporters and writers.
If you have any questions or suggestions please contact me at 248-693-8331 or at lakeorionreview@gmail.com.