At 1,150-strong, a kind-hearted group guides us and helps us avoid land mines: Letter from the Editor

Chris Quinn, Editor, cleveland.com/The Plain DealerThe occasion was the start of voting on Election Day. Almost as soon as it began in Cuyahoga County, we started seeing buzz about voters going home without casting ballots because of a scanning issue. We did not know how big of a problem it was.

Within minutes of sending a text about what we were hearing, I had responses from across the region, including from people who were working in the polls at that very minute. We were able to quickly get the word out about the issue and how the Elections Board was fixing it.This is not something we could have done 20 years ago. Back then, we would have been forced to wait from explanations from elections officials or sent reporters to polling places. That would have taken time.

When we created the “From the Editor” texts, our hope was to launch a conversation with readers, to build a community to discuss our work and the thinking behind it. Each morning, I send a text about a story we have in the works or questions we hope to answer. Fairly often, I ask for feedback on an issue we might explore.

As for the benefit to the subscribers of the texts, they tell me that the texts make them feel connected to our newsroom. And they get a heads up on stories before we publish them, making them feel like insiders. They say they like having a direct line to the editor of a huge Ohio news platform. Most important, possibly, is they get to have a say in how we report the news, by guiding us in the reporting. They regularly warn me of land mines or suggest angles we had not considered.

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