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Hooper: For readers new and old, we are here to serve

 
Published May 6, 2016

I love the Tampa Bay area.

It's my home.

When I first moved here in 1988, I never thought my fondness for its historic districts, its scenic vistas, its heart-warming diversity and its tantalizing food would grow so great. In my mind, Tampa would serve as just another way-stop in my burgeoning journalistic career.

Now I can't imagine living anywhere else.

So with that in mind, a part of me will always be grateful to the Tampa Tribune for delivering me to my forever home. I've devoted the bulk of my career — 24 years, but who's counting? — to the Times, but it's the Tribune where I spent four years first learning to love this area, its charms and its quirks.

Now, all these years later, my career, in a sense, has come full circle. I'm again writing for a publication that bears the name Tampa Tribune. We bestow — and I'm intentionally using such a lofty word — that name on the mast to honor the 123-year history of the Tribune, and we hope Tribune subscribers see it as a gold-embossed invitation.

In all the years I've spoken to civic groups and students and inquirers about the competition between the two papers, I expressed the belief that this community proved to be the biggest winner of the battle. We pushed each other to write better, report better and work harder — for you, the readers.

Now the competition comes to a close with the Times' purchase of the Tribune this week, but the drive to continue serving the community remains strong. The Times will continue serving as a beacon for our long-time readers while striving to win over those new to our daily efforts.

At its core, journalism isn't about left-leaning perspectives or right-wing convictions. It's about the awesome opportunity to impact lives on a daily basis. Sometimes, that impact may be simple in nature: a clever line that produces a smile; a story about a nonprofit that prompts someone to give; a feature on a high school athlete that proud parents clip and paste into a scrapbook.

On other occasions, the impact shakes the fiber of the community. An expose on a politically connected slumlord changes the way the county manages the homeless. A shocking report on the failures of urban elementary schools brings needed attention from local, state and national officials. A stunning probe into woefully funded state mental hospitals moves the Legislature to act.

You will find all those positives in our daily product. In this particular section, which will publish every Friday and Sunday, we will deliver a blend of news, features and information that matters most to you at the community level.

This is not a new endeavor for the Times. We've published a Tampa-specific edition for nearly 30 years. Like many of my colleagues, we work here, we live here and we raise our kids here — in Hillsborough County.

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This is home. We love it, and it's that love that will drive us every day to maximize the awesome opportunity we're blessed to have as journalists. Your journalists.

That's all I'm saying.