Monday Memo: Notes from the publisher’s desk

By Shereen Siewert

Happy Monday, readers. I hope you had a fantastic week.

It’s hard to believe that summer is quickly coming to a close. Before you know it, we’ll be raking leaves and donning warm coats, gearing up for a long Wisconsin winter.

Yikes, right?

At Wausau Pilot & Review, we’ve been working behind the scenes on a few changes and new programs we’re excited about. We’re finalizing plans for our redesigned app, for one thing. If you have an Android phone and use our app, you might have noticed some glitches with content not showing up. Our tech team has been working to pinpoint the problem, but we’re hoping we’ll have a new app to roll out within the next two weeks, regardless. We’ll be sure to let you know when it arrives, so you can update your current app to the new release or download it if you don’t already have it on your phone.

Normally at this time of the year we’d be knee deep in high school football and other sports. COVID-19 fouled up those plans, of course, but we are anxiously awaiting our first local contests and have a new way we’re covering them. We’ll be using Smart Sports AI technology to cover more contests and more local schools than ever before, once those matchups start rolling. High school athletes work hard, and they deserve to have their efforts highlighted. We’re excited for the season, and we know many of you are, too.

The Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin is hosting its first-ever “Month of Giving” by introducing the COVID-19 Impact Catalog to support local nonprofit agencies. We are incredibly excited to have been chosen for the catalog, which we will be using in part to enhance our coverage for non-English speakers who are sometimes left out in the cold when it comes to news about public safety and government. We’re testing out a translation tool, which you’ll see at the top of your screen, to transform our content from English into Hmong, Spanish and Vietnamese. Though it’s still in the testing phase, we’re getting some good feedback. If your native tongue is not English and you’d be willing to spot check some translations for us, please email me at [email protected].

One other program to highlight is our student journalism program, which we are now ready to launch with the help of WIPPS. Students chosen will be asked to complete several learning modules from Poynter, one of the nation’s most respected journalism instruction organizations, before they complete assignments for us. Find out more here.

As always, your feedback and your letters for publication are always welcome. Email me at [email protected] anytime. I’m happy to answer your questions – even the tough ones.

Thanks for spending part of your Monday with the Pilot. We appreciate every one of you.

• Shereen Siewert, Wausau Pilot & Review Publisher