Watching out for you

As I’ve explained in this column before, we regularly survey readers to ask what stories are important to you, and how we are doing at providing the news you need. One recent reader survey showed our best results since I arrived here two years ago as editor. More readers than ever say the newspaper is getting better.

That’s a proud moment for me and for our staff, which worked hard for you in 2012.

We began the year by sending reporters on the road to Iowa and elsewhere, to follow the campaigns of the GOP candidates, including Georgia’s own Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain.

January also brought the General Assembly to town and our team of experienced reporters covered every step of the action. We closely covered lawmakers’ agenda, which included prison reform, a tax overhaul and cost-cutting in state government. And we exposed legislative perks and lobbyist spending, reporting that brought calls for reform.

The AJC rarely takes part in the legislative process but in 2012 we thought it was important to work with Attorney General Sam Olens on his plan to overhaul Georgia’s open government laws. We were proud that the new law approved by the governor in April improved government transparency for Georgians.

In the spring we published a landmark installment in our long-running investigation of school cheating. Our exclusive analysis of standardized test scores in more than 14,000 U.S. school districts revealed that hundreds of districts across the nation had the same suspicious patterns of test scores that pointed to cheating in Atlanta. Our stories have raised troubling questions about the integrity of high-stakes testing, a cornerstone of national education policy.

Subsequent installments in the investigative series revealed that districts where cheating is reported too often look the other way or minimize the investigation. And we also showed that the U.S. Education Department, which mandates testing through the No Child Left Behind law, does little to ensure that the results of standardized tests are trustworthy.

Speaking of trust, one of metro Atlanta’s biggest stories this year was the July 31 vote on the one-cent transportation sales tax, which was defeated largely because voters did not trust area elected officials to spend the money wisely.

With $8 billion of taxpayer dollars at stake, we knew this was a critical decision. So in the weeks leading up to the election we brought you scores of stories to help you understand the spending plans, the list of projects the tax would have funded and their potential impact on traffic. We also hosted a community forum with experts on all sides of the issue and we used our opinion pages to explore the pros and cons.

The T-SPLOST’s defeat left metro Atlanta with a big challenge: Practically everyone thinks something needs to be done about traffic but we haven’t yet reached a consensus on solutions. So we will certainly bring you much more coverage of this important topic in the year ahead.

Also ahead: More rich storytelling of the kind we started showcasing in August in our new “Personal Journeys” feature. The story in the Sunday Living & Arts section has become an instant hit with readers who love great writing and compelling characters. Each week “Personal Journeys” spotlights a local person who has inspired us or otherwise shaped life in metro Atlanta. We’ve featured the story of a family that received an unlikely gift of life from two strangers, an aging coach who was rescued from devastating circumstances by a former player, a father-and-son journey of pastors of two of Atlanta’s prominent churches, and other great reads you can only find in the AJC.

Finally, I can’t close the year without calling attention to our new lineup of digital products. From smart phone apps that receive breaking news throughout the day to new tablet apps for Apple and Android that match and improve on the print page-turning experience, this is news delivered where and how you want it. If you found a new tablet under your tree this year, try a new version of the AJC that comes with your subscription.

You can expect us to continue to work hard in 2013 to provide you with a better and more valuable newspaper. We’ll continue to dig deep on the stories that interest you; hold your elected officials accountable; illuminate the rich personalities of our community; provide a balanced mix of views on our opinion pages; and help you be an informed citizen about issues that affect you.

And with our new digital lineup we’ll be providing this important work in more formats than ever, keeping pace with the changes demanded by you, our readers.

Thanks for reading and subscribing. Best wishes for a great 2013.