By Larry Lee | OBSERVER Publisher, President
Well this is different.
Whether you are a loyal subscriber, occasional reader or you have only passed by a copy of The Sacramento OBSERVER newspaper on a newsstand over the better part of the last 50 years, one thing has remained constant: the look.
That changes with this week’s edition.
As the publisher (and caretaker) of The OBSERVER, I would like to introduce you to our newly redesigned version of our weekly newspaper.
This is an exciting time for The OBSERVER. Over the last several months, our dedicated team has made some great advancements to build on the legacy built by my parents as one of the nation’s best Black newspapers.
We have rebuilt our website, Sacobserver.com, and you have responded to the improvements — each month with greater traffic numbers than the month before.
And now this beautiful print edition which is full of changes: full color throughout, stapled, with a reader experience that will be visually stimulating.
The improvements we will be making over the next several months won’t stop at the cosmetic changes. While we will continue to provide news and information about the everyday lives of Sacramento’s Black community, we will also dive deeper into issues and disparities that have negatively impacted our community with an emphasis on addressing solutions. We will be backing that reporting up with more data that we hope will help lead to positive transformation within our community.
This is clearly executed with this week’s cover story, which is the first of a three-part series (two in print and one virtually) on the region’s COVID vaccine outreach efforts. “Giving Ourselves A Shot,” authored by OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer Genoa Barrow, gives readers an in-depth look at how Blacks have taken care of their own vaccination efforts to protect themselves and the ones they love.
As someone who has read virtually every copy of The OBSERVER over the last 40 years (see the 1979 photo of me reading The OBSERVER), I can confidently say that I have never been prouder of the work we have been doing and the product we are presenting to our community.
We hope you enjoy!