Temple: Looking back, but thinking ahead

Published December 24, 2005 at midnight

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In today's newspaper, we look back at what happened in 2005.

I'd prefer to look ahead.

But first I'd like to share what Peggy Noonan, a former speechwriter for President Reagan and contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal, wrote this week about our story, "Final Salute." You can find her column at OpinionJournal.com.

"In the tension over bias a great deal can be lost," Noonan writes of criticism of the press. "One of those things is just praise for work that comes from the MSM (Mainstream Media) that is not only excellent and truthful but profoundly in the public interest. Work that is difficult and that demanded from the workers a level of professionalism that suggests a kind of love, maybe for the craft, maybe for the object of their efforts. Maybe both."

It's obvious that Noonan gets what went into that story.

Editorial Page Editor Vincent Carroll mocks me gently when I use the word love with regards to our work. I know it might sound over the top. But so what? Don't you know when the cooks at a restaurant love what they're doing? You can taste it.

I hope you feel it in this newspaper and on our Web site every day. A passion. A passion for trying new things to serve you better. A passion for telling stories.

Take our new mapping service for Christmas light tours. This year, instead of just printing maps in the paper, we're offering personalized maps on our Web site.

In the newspaper, we have to give everybody the same map. On the Web, you can create the map that best suits your needs.

Go to com and click on "Holiday Lights" and you'll find an offer to "Get directions to light displays in your area."

It will take you to a page where you can enter the address where you want to start your tour. Click on "Find Nearest" and you'll get a listing of the best nearby displays. In my case, there were 16 within three miles. Choose the ones you want to visit and click on "Find Route" and you'll get step-by-step directions and a map of the entire route. Print it and you'll have a guide for a fun excursion.

We developed this service as an experiment with ESRI, a Boulder company that specializes in Web mapping. We wanted to see what was possible.

It wasn't as easy as we had hoped. For example, I'd love - yes, love - for people to be able to post their own pictures of their lights on our Web site and to have them show up with the addresses when others call up a map. I'd like for you to be able to e-mail the light show creators. And, of course, you should be able to get our maps and photos on your cell phone while you're driving, maybe even with a soundtrack to make your journey more fun. And how about coupons or special offers from coffee shops or gas stations for participating? But those ideas will have to wait for future years.

This mapping effort, believe it or not, is linked to our plans to help you decide how to vote in the 2006 election. We're going to build our deepest election Web site ever, where just by punching in your address you'll be able to find links to all our stories and data, such as campaign finance reports and information about the candidates and issues you'll find on your ballot.

We hope you'll walk into your polling place next November with a printout from RockyMountainNews.com as your sample ballot.

This focus on service extends to the community news initiative we launched this year, YourHub.com.

For example, we now offer a directory on each of our 42 hubs. Enter the type of business you're searching for and up pops a new window offering listings near your work or home. The bad news in my case is that there were 228 pizza places within 10 miles of my home, ranked by proximity. The site offers a map, directions and, of course, phone numbers to contact the outlets.

YourHub.com, which launched on May 5 and now has more than 10,000 registered users and hundreds of thousands of visitors, is becoming more and more a community Web site, rather than an online newspaper. We started by thinking you would want to read links to stories from MSM organizations. And some of you do. But we've learned that many of you are more interested in seeing what your neighbor has to say. So you'll find even more of that next year.

Soon we'll be offering blogs on YourHub.com. This will mean you'll be able to essentially start your own publication on your community's Web site. So, say for example you live in Greenwood Village, you'll be able to have your own blog on the Greenwood Village Hub, with postings and pictures all under your control.

I hope you can tell I'm excited about next year. But before I get too carried away, I'm planning to hibernate for a week.

You won't find me in this spot next Saturday. So I'd like to say thank you now for reading the Rocky this year, and I promise you'll find the same love for our craft and for the object of our efforts next year.

John Temple can be reached at editor@RockyMountainNews.com or by mail at 100 Gene Amole Way, Denver, CO 80204.

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