Publisher & President, Rina Risper, shares her thoughts for the new year! Photo by Sheron Shappell
By Rina Risper
President & Publisher
LANSING, MI — I have decided that being Publisher of The New Citizens Press is exactly what I want to continue doing in the future. I am here for the long run. I am sure that you have noticed plenty of changes in the newspaper over the past 10 years. In 2010, we started to let our actions speak louder than words when we began to focus on a mission of enhancing your experience with us. We offer a unique perspective but we publish every two weeks. We added an online photo album and column entitled “News Spotlight”, that we upload to inform you about what is going on when we are not in printing mode. In essence, news pertinent to readers will be posted online.
We are committed to examining how our stories impact our readers. With this new focus, we have begun to use Facebook more and we often ask our readers to send us photos for our stories instead of using stock photos. We want a personal touch. In 2011, we have launched the “Lighting Up Lansing – One Smile at a Time” photo opportunity. Pictures will be printed on the bottom right side of the newspaper. If you are smiling and look like you are really enjoying yourself, we are looking for you.
We have exciting reporters and columnists and if you are missing your favorite authors, just log on www.tncp.net to re-read your favorite articles. Our newest reporter, Tashmica Torok, does an amazing job capturing our readers with stories about well known businesses and new businesses.
Summer of 2010, we responded to your request to attend different events thoroughout the state and beyond The pictures are added to our photo album to our website page. We also have a link that allows our customers to directly contact us by email on our website.
We have a team that is dedicated to making sure that you are heard so write us or email. Our new office assistant, Keyarrow Murphy, is more than capable to assist you. We are looking forward to hearing from you.
I plan to continue to keep you updated through Facebook and Twitter. We are also posting employment opportunities daily. Techonology is changing and we will keep up with the pace so that you will be informed in a timely manner. As an independent newspaper, we also have more flexibility to cover issues that are not in the mainstream. We would like to maximize our potential and we cannot do it without you. Being successful starts with our unwavering commitment to outstanding customer service coupled with changing strategies to keep up with the ever changing political and social landscape.
We realize that we are not always going to be perfect but we are committed to making your experience a good one. We want you to know that we are working hard everyday to earn your readership and advertising business. My job as President & Publisher is to continue on the path of overcoming our challenges while putting our readers and advertisers first.
We would appreciate you celebrating with us in February as we begin our 10th year of The New Citizens Press. It is an exciting time for us.
Thank you for allowing us to continue demonstrating our love for our community and readers. Please don’t keep us a secret. Pick up several copies for friends and family. Friend us on Facebook and sign up to follow us on Twitter.
Our motto for 2011 is “Staying the Course”. ”Stay the course” is a phrase used in the context of a war or battle meaning to pursue a goal regardless of any obstacles or criticism. There comes a time when you must consider the blessings that you have and not concentrate on the negative. Someone told me that print was dead. I do not believe that. Community newspapers will continue to grow because they highlight issues and people that hardly get any coverage. There is enough news to go around and I absolutely support our mainstream newspaper, The Lansing State Journal, and you should as well.
This year our charitable giving will grow. We will also be including two sports teams. We will also continue to support One Love Global and the fantastic work they are doing in the community. We will also be having Poetry in the City and Que’n With Kids this summer. I am expecting to see you at the events that we post. You will always be accepted and learn about people that you may not have an opportunity to talk to or network with. You will find that most have commonalities. What we have in common is most important and our differences… well, we can work on those.
I often tell people, if you go to the doctor and find out that you need a new heart, you do not ask if that person was a Republican or a Democrat, Catholic or Jewish, Black or White, you want to live. You need a heart and that is the gist of the matter.
During our 10 Year Anniversary Party at the Creole Gallery on February 19, 2010 we will be collecting dictionaries and thesauruses. Our collection begins now. I will be speaking at two schools in January and hope that you can help me with this endeavor. New dictionaries and thesauruses will be accepted (preferably college editions). I still have my first college dictionary and thesaurus that I received as an Upward Bound student in New York.
A portion of the funds raised at this event will go to purchase additional thesauruses and dictionaries. The anniversary will be the official launch of the “Read to Succeed & Write Ignite” program. Together we will give students an opportunity to expand their vocabulary. I have had this dream for a while.
Once while I was teaching a poetry class, a child raised her hand and responded that she wanted to write about a big tree. I told her that there were so many other words that would add color and depth to the “big tree”. We looked in the dictionary and the thesaurus and she smiled broadly as she wrote, “I am a magnificent mahagony.” The sense of accomplishment was written in stone and I prayed that her parents would purchase a dictionary and thesaurus for her. That experience stayed with me.
What passion lies within you? Who told you that you could not do something? What ails you mentally? Find out because we only get one life. Our lives are not meant to harp on what we do not have or an idea someone stole from you 10 years ago. A human being that does not give up and shows strength and a continued hope in humanity is one who will succeed.
Write your dreams down on paper and check them off as you live life. When you die, no one is going to continue to live the dreams that you never told. So take a vacation or a staycation. Go to the library or the park. Do you and everything will fall into place. While you are doing you, continue to learn from the little things that make you laugh or feel comfortable. You will need to look back on that when people and family test you.
My place is St. Maarten, where I went on my first real vacation in 15 years in November. As I lay on the beach for the last time, I took note of the hot sun on my face. I took note of the way the water splashed on the shore. As I took my last dip in the sea, I concentrated on how the sand felt slipping through my fingers. I took note of the vastness of it all, the blank horizon that I could not see the end of. However, I knew something was out there and I was ready to come back to Lansing and be of service to my state, my city, my neighborhood, the newspaper and most of all to you individually.
May you begin to live the best life ever because you only have one. Happy New Year!
LOVE PEOPLE,
Rina Risper
