Vasché: To paraphrase Elvis Costello: Don't bury us, we're not dead yet

By Mark S. Vasché
mvasche@modbee.com

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I was working in the front yard a week ago when a neighbor out with her dog stopped to chat. One of the first things she said was, "I hope you're not going to stop giving me a paper every morning."

I assured her then — and I assure you now — that's not going to happen.

To borrow a line from singer Elvis Costello, "Don't bury me, 'cause I'm not dead yet."

Local news, business and sports sections of The Modesto Bee on Sunday, March 22, 2009. (Dan Day/The Modesto Bee)

The Bee has been here, serving the people of our region, for more than 80 years. And we intend to be here for many, many years to come.

That doesn't mean that your Modesto Bee won't continue to change.

This past week alone we made a number of changes, combining some sections and refocusing others, dropping some features and adding others. And as I've explained, many of those changes were driven by the severe recession which has hammered the businesses whose advertising supplies the lion's share of our revenue and covers the lion's share of our expenses.

We continue to change — or, more correctly, expand — how we meet your news, information and advertising needs. While the printed paper remains our core product and, in many ways, our heart and soul, we no longer are a "newspaper company" but a modern media company. Our modbee.com operation is growing readership as well as revenue, and the continued development of modbee as well as other digital platforms are paramount to a strong, successful future.

What hasn't changed — and isn't going to change — is our commitment to public service journalism, to carrying out our historic "watchdog" role of monitoring public agencies and officials, to providing coverage that is relevant and reliable, to doing those things that Leonard Pitts describes so eloquently in his accompanying column.

To be sure, we'll be doing that with fewer people. Like businesses throughout our region, the recession has forced us to reduce expenses. On Friday, we bade farewell to more than three dozen Bee employees who took buyouts or were laid off. They worked in departments throughout our company, from advertising to circulation to finance to the newsroom. Among the familiar names you'll no longer see in The Bee are those of reporters Tim Moran and Emilie Raguso and sportswriter Will DeBoard.

Those remaining are every bit as dedicated and talented, and together we will continue to serve you, in print and online.

To be sure, just as the neighboring column says, there are those who hope newspapers go away. And there are those here — corrupt public officials, dishonest business owners, disgraced politicians, community blowhards, narrow-minded ideologues — who hope The Bee goes under.

Well, that's not going to happen.

So don't bury us, 'cause we're not dead yet. And we're not dying anytime soon.

Vasché, editor and senior vice president, can be reached at 578-2356 or mvasche@modbee.com.