A couple of weeks ago, March 20 passed with me failing to recognize that it was the third anniversary of this site. Let me remedy that now.
Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics — which I more commonly refer to these days as nmpolitics.net — has stayed strong through three years that have been among the most tumultuous in the history of the news business. I’m proud of that, but also remain humbled at the support the site has received ever since my wife and I decided to go with this crazy dream to quit newspapers and head down this road more than three years ago.
What turbulent times these have been. Earlier today, I reported on a major restructuring and additional layoffs at the Las Cruces Sun-News, which is where I spent much of my newspaper career. Some newspapers are dying as a result of their inability to shift to the Internet and survive the sinking economy. Others are struggling to stay alive. Twitter and Facebook are becoming primary deliverers of news for many people.
The news business is shifting more quickly than any journalist can keep up with or even understand. Who knows where we’ll be in five or 10 years?
It’s a frightening time for journalism and the democracy it aims to protect. But it’s also exciting.
Like so many other journalists, I’m trying new ways to make it easier for you to access my site in whatever way you want. I recently started using Twitter (@haussamen) and I’ve become a much more active Facebook participant. I’ve even set up a way for you to put this site’s headlines on your own Web site.
Several months ago I also promised you a redesign of this site. Unfortunately, I learned in December that, instead of being close to done, I had wasted weeks working on a template that wasn’t going to work at all with the vision I have for this site. So I scrapped it and started from scratch for the second time.
I’m working on it. It’s coming. Really. And I’m pretty excited about the changes. The new site will be simpler, the content will be more accessible and there will be more ways for you to join the conversation.
But enough bloviating. The bottom line is this: I had no idea where this was going when I started this site three years ago, or if it was going to work at all. But it has worked, because you choose to read and participate in this site.
And for that, I consider myself blessed.
So, thanks. I hope you’ll continue to move forward with me and nmpolitics.net in this experiment with the future of news.