Welcome to NewsWorks’ new Northwest Philadelphia page

Greetings, NewsWorks readers. You may have noticed that things seem a little bit different around the Northwest Philadelphia pages today. Well, there’s good reason for that.

As of today, NewsWorks is condensing the Germantown/West Oak Lane, Mt. Airy/Chestnut Hill and Roxborough/Manayunk/East Falls pages into one. That umbrella page is called Northwest Philadelphia with myself and associate editor Neema Roshania leading the way.

Let’s get into what that means and, more importantly, doesn’t mean for you.

What it means

Our commitment to covering all seven communities remains steadfast.

Our coverage will still hit issues of importance from the Andorra Shopping Center to Ogontz Avenue to Kelly Drive, but what will change is the depth of coverage. Having one page means we can dedicate more time to each story, and continuing coverage of ongoing stories. (Get ready for longer stories on occasion, that is.)

Neema and I will host office hours in each community with regularity, and welcome pitches and story suggestions via email (Brian, Neema) and phone (215-351-1293 or 215-351-5897).

We will condense the Daily Newsletter into one overarching Northwest Philadelphia correspondence Monday through Friday. However, we will also add a weekly newsletter specific to the three former zones.

What it doesn’t mean

While we no longer have three Northwest Philadelphia zoned pages, we haven’t diluted our mission statement: Covering issues and stories of importance to residents and readers.

We can’t do it without your help.

While the crime blotter and calendar sections will soon fall to the wayside, we will list upcoming meetings and events on our Facebook page and Twitter accounts. So, please send word to us just like you have in the past. (Follow on Facebook here, and Twitter here, here and here.)

With community minded journalism still on the front burner, we may ask you to report back with details from meetings that we were unable to cover. (Translation: If you send over some details, we’ll get ’em on the community record.)

If I didn’t address any issues or concerns that you may have, please call, email or put them in the comments section of the story.

Yes, we’re combining web pages, but our commitment to Chestnut Hill, East Falls, Germantown, Manayunk, Mt. Airy, Roxborough and West Oak Lane has not diminished one iota.