January Update: 2011 Highlights and the year ahead

We had a great year in 2011, and I am excited about the year ahead. As usual, you can scroll down to read about some exciting upcoming classes and events, our Winter Party and Sausage Fest, and to read our editors’ reports about the highlights of the past year. But first, I want to say a few words about what we have planned for 2012:

More classes: We’re going to offer at least two classes every month – one focused on citizen journalism, and the other on media skills – everything from Introduction to iMovie to Facebook as a Marketing Tool. To find out about the latest classes, go totcdailyplanet.net/classes.  (January classes listed below).

More journalism: We’re going to recruit more reporters, produce more beat reporting, and dig deeper into our neighborhoods. Renewed funding from the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative and a generous grant from Southeast Publications will make it possible for us to increase our coverage of Central Corridor and southeast Minneapolis neighborhoods, so that’s where we’ll start, but our goal is to expand our coverage of all Minneapolis and St. Paul neighborhoods. We are also expanding our food and dining coverage, by merging my TCFoodies.com website to a new home on the Daily Planet, where we will be serving up fresh food news daily.

More newsletters: In addition to our Daily Headlines, Weekly Highlights and Arts Orbit Radar newsletters, we’ll soon be launching newsletters for TCFoodies, Education News, and Southeast Minneapolis / University District Neighborhood News.

More outreach and events: Last year, our New Normal project published news stories and organized community conversations focused on deciding our community priorities in tough economic times. This year, with renewed support from the Bush Foundation, we are going to build on that work. We’ll be partnering with organizations that work on issues such as Education, Health Care, the Environment, Work, Transportation and Immigrant Communities to hold community social/informational events, where people can learn about the organization, the issues, and how to use the media – including the Daily Planet.

More interactivity: We’re going to add a Facebook Comments box to our stories, so that if you are signed in to Facebook, your comments will appear immediately on the site, under your real name, and you will have the option of also posting them on your Facebook page. We’re also going to start a campaign to get more readers to add their favorite neighborhood businesses and attractions to our neighborhood attractions maps and directories.

A more user-friendly website: We know, it’s cluttered. With the help of our web developer, Steve Hanson, we will soon unveil a redesigned homepage, with many more improvements to follow.

Save the date!: TC Daily Planet Winter Party and Sausage Fest Thursday, February 2 at the Summit Brewing Company. Great beer, great band, great sausages. Details coming soon.

January classes: 

The Twin Cities Media Alliance has a couple of great classes coming up this month: Finding Your Voice Online, next Wednesday, January 11 taught by Twin Cities Daily Planet editor Mary Turck, and Introduction to i Movie, taught by videographer Ben McGinley on Monday, January 23. The tuition for these classes is $10, but scholarships are available on request. Also, scroll down for information about other events this month, including our free How to use the Daily Planet workshop on January 19, (followed by a happy hour!) and our weekly writers groups.