Derreck Kayongo turned soap into a form of hope for refugees and those impacted by natural disasters around the world. Derreck had been in a refugee camp in Kenya. He sent more than 20,000 bars of soap to victims of the earthquake that wrecked Haiti in 2010.
Thirty-five years ago, the Chandlery, an upscale home goods store, opened in Roswell’s historic district. That was a different era, when the north Fulton County city was home to only about 6,000 residents. Today, more than 90,000 people call the Roswell area their home and the Chandlery is still selling its charm.
Holly Jones, a talented Kennesaw artist and owner of the Painted Butterfly Art Gallery, took her passion and story of a dear friend who was a foster child and turned it into refurbished suitcases for children in the Georgia foster care system.
Army Pvt. Tyzavian M. Burks, a 2010 graduate of South Atlanta Law and Social Justice School, recently graduated from basic combat training.
And 10 seniors from McIntosh, Sandy Creek, Starr’s Mill and Whitewater high schools were named semifinalists in the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program.
The stories of Kayongo, the Chandlery, Jones, Burks and 10 high school seniors are all inspiring. They are the kinds of stories that neighbors and loved ones put in scrapbooks or post on bulletin boards in community centers. But they have something else in common. They are snippets of the stories told every week in the County by county pages in the Metro section of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
I’ve been a journalist for more than 20 years and I can’t tell you the number of times someone has asked me in my private or professional life: Why don’t you write about local people? Why don’t you print good news? I’ve been in churches where ministers have said from the pulpit that newspapers and other forms of the news media don’t care about “small-town folk.” They would lead you to believe newspapers like the AJC are out of touch with their local communities and neighborhoods.
At its core, the AJC is about being a watchdog for the community, informing you of what’s really going on and making our community a better place to live. You will find unmatched watchdog coverage of news stories that take you beyond the official and that hold state and local leaders accountable. But there’s another nugget, and that’s our commitment to community news.
In November 2010, the AJC added a two-page county-by-county report inside the Metro section. At first it ran six days a week, but it became so popular that now it runs every day. It keeps you up to date on what’s happening in your community. It includes news briefs from across metro Atlanta and features to help you navigate traffic, get potholes fixed, know how your neighborhood restaurants are rated and honor neighborhood heroes. Whether you live in Marietta, Norcross, Buckhead or East Point, the County by county section is here to inform you.
While the section may not be for everybody, many of you have told us that adding more local news has made your time with us worthwhile.
Hyperlocal news has shown its relevance across media outlets. Research by the Readership Institute at the Media Management Center at Northwestern University revealed that “intensely local, people-centered news ranks at the top of the list of content items with the greatest potential to increase overall readership.”
In our digital, 24/7 world, people can get their news in an instant. But there’s a relationship built when a newspaper, as we did, tells you about the 10-year effort of residents to take a private oasis of woods and turn it into a destination for walkers and nature lovers by clearing out underbrush, ivy and kudzu. The County by county section is building relationships.
If you haven’t read County by county, you’re missing something special, according to our readers. Start reading today, inside Metro. And check out the top of the section — the distinctive mural of metro Atlanta icons is another local touch from us to you.
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