You talked, we listened: Get ready for a reimagined Wichita Eagle
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Are Wichita-area splash parks safe?
An incident at Tanganyika Falls Splash Park west of Wichita in the summer of 2021 raised questions about sanitation and oversight in the maintenance of splash pads throughout Sedgwick County.
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My family and I had no idea what to expect when I arrived in Wichita two months ago to become the Eagle’s new managing editor.
I’ve worked as a reporter in Mississippi, an editor in New York City, and a regional editor for the West Coast based in Vallejo, Calif. But the vast majority of our time as a family has been as multi-generational Northern Californians on both sides, so we were a little apprehensive about the move.
How would we be accepted by our new town and neighbors? How would our 7-year-old, 2-year-old and 6-month-old adjust? Were we making the right decision to move to the middle of the country?
I am delighted to say that not only have we found Wichita to be an absolutely wonderful place to live and thrive, but it has quickly surpassed our quality of life in the Bay Area on multiple fronts. You all won’t be surprised to hear me say that the schools are better, the people are friendlier, the restaurants are more diverse and virtually everything is more affordable and of better quality.
Not to mention little traffic, few wildfires and magical little things called fireflies.
As excited as I am about living in this wonderful city, I might be more excited about what’s happening at The Wichita Eagle and Kansas.com.
A couple of weeks ago, we asked you for your thoughts on The Eagle, including what you would like to see more of and what you wish would be different.
The biggest request was for more news about Wichita. You also asked for more investigative journalism and a larger print product.
You spoke, and we listened.
Next week, Aug. 15, we’re debuting our reimagined Sunday Wichita Eagle, which will provide a deeper, more thoughtful reading experience.
We’re going big on this, which means we’re adding more pages and rolling out a sleek new look. Each week, we’ll take an in-depth look at a complex issue facing us as a city and as neighbors, or we’ll dig into the things that make Wichita such a fantastic place to live.
Not only will we give you the strong investigative stories that hold people in positions of power to account, such as our recent EMS series or long-running political coverage, but we’ll also place a revived focus on community and public service issues such as education, family and working in Wichita.
We also know that Wichitans love going to restaurants — your feedback reinforced that — so we’re going to devote more space to the latest dining news from Denise Neil.
We’re going to provide a look back at the major events of the past week and also note what’s coming in the week ahead.
We will also have expanded content on Kansas.com, providing comprehensive coverage with related stories, visual journalism, quizzes and other features, many exclusive to Eagle subscribers. You’ll continue to get the latest news and updates on the site as well.
To make it easy to move between our print and digital offerings, we’ve made it as simple as pulling out your phone, scanning a code on the page and being whisked off to these extras with one little “beep.”
The other thing we heard from several readers was that they wished we would hire more reporters. I’m happy to say that we’re going to be doing exactly that. Look for announcements on that front coming soon.
Taken together, the idea is to give our readers more: more of the essential, in-depth journalism you can find only in The Eagle and more ways to experience it.
Please let us know what you think.
As for my family, we are happy to say that not only are we sure we made the right decision, we are proud to call ourselves that unique breed: Wichitans.
As always, many thanks for reading.
This story was originally published August 8, 2021 at 12:00 AM.
