Is there too much regional news in your Richmond County Daily Journal? The answer may depend on whether you hold and fold or point and click.

Some folks who took part in our reader satisfaction survey say we publish too many stories from neighboring counties.

“This is supposed to be the Richmond County Daily Journal,” one respondent wrote. “I’m not interested in Anson County, Scotland County or Cheraw in South Carolina.”

Variants of this response were repeated enough that it leapt out as one of our readers’ chief concerns. So it’s the first one we’ll address as we begin to sift through the data.

It’s worth pointing out that the online survey drew a majority of respondents who get their news exclusively from YourDailyJournal.com. Many of the regional stories you read on our website don’t make the cut for the Daily Journal’s print edition. Of course, a few do.

A Laurinburg dateline here and a Wadesboro dateline there can give the impression that we’re chasing news in other counties and neglecting what’s happening in our own hometown.

Those stories, however, are written by reporters and editors at our sister papers and publications with which we have sharing agreements. We’ve never diverted Daily Journal resources in order to add the occasional missive from Morven or bulletin from Bennettsville. We aren’t about to start now.

Richmond County isn’t an island. Highways, the Pee Dee River, a regional hospital system, state legislative districts and economic partnerships like the Lumber River Council of Governments connect us to our neighboring counties. Shouldn’t our newspaper serve as a link between county lines?

Crime pays no heed to ZIP codes and municipal boundaries. If counterfeit bills are being passed in Montgomery County or a meth lab is busted in Anson County, there’s a fair chance either contraband could find its way to Rockingham, Hamlet, Dobbins Heights, Hoffman, Norman and Ellerbe.

That said, I’m proud to live and work in a community with a strong sense of identity, and I understand the need for Richmond County’s newspaper to reflect that distinct identity. We aren’t about to become the Sandhills-Pee Dee-Piedmont-Carolinas District Daily Journal.

First and foremost, our job is to report Richmond County news for Richmond County people. We won’t forget it.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be examining more results from our reader satisfaction survey and sharing our plans to grow and improve your Daily Journal in this space. But before I sign off, I’d like to address a misconception about our editorial independence.

“The Daily Journal is a lost cause,” one survey respondent wrote. “The people in the building won’t be able to overcome the restraints put on them by the corporate office — even if they had the talent, ability or desire to do so.”

Our parent company, Civitas Media, exercises a hands-off approach, leaving local decisions to local editors. Daily Journal coverage choices are made right here in our East Washington Street office, not at Civitas’ home base down the road in Davidson.

I’m not sure how this particular conspiracy theory started, but it deserves a swift debunking.

Our staff is forunate to work for a North Carolina-based company that has invested in — not interfered with — the Daily Journal. And no matter who signs our paychecks, it is you, the reader, to whom we are ultimately accountable.

“Bring the paper back to Richmond County and keep it here,” another respondent wrote.

As we look ahead to the Daily Journal’s 85th year of publication beginning next week, let’s put this rumor to rest.

Spread the word: We never left. We’re getting better. And we’re here to stay.

Corey Friedman is editor of the Daily Journal. Reach him at 910-817-2670 and email [email protected].

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Corey Friedman

Editor