What a rearranged Local operation might look like

Bob Mong indicated a change in the Local news focus in his house ad letter to the readers this past weekend. It was short on details. Here's what I'm hearing: That it could be a smaller-scale version of the zoned coverage the DMN has been working with for quite some time. Arlington Morning News, Collin County initiative, the series of zoned sections that were rolled out and back. Even NeighborsGo was an attempt to increase coverage of specific areas.

But instead of trying to increase coverage everyplace, a few specific communities would get the extra focus this time. The targets have not been identified to the staff, but the northern suburbs where the DMN still has significant "core readers" would be one logical direction. We're still selling a lot of papers in Dallas itself, so maybe there are parts of the city that would also get the team focus. How we do all that with a smaller staff, unless other coverage areas or beats get eliminated? I guess it's all in the plan.

If I'm off target, or if anybody has more to add, please e-mail me.