Despite grim news, the Pilot is poised for a bright future

If you have been reading the paper this past year, you know that it has been a brutal time for us and for the industry. Layoffs, eliminating sections, price hikes, expense cutting, whole newspapers shutting down.

Some readers I've talked to have even used the "C" word, as in, "Will The Pilot just close up shop?"

The answer is an emphatic no.

Sure, we are smaller by about 30 percent since 2007, but we still have the largest news-gathering staff in Hampton Roads by far.

We remain committed to providing you with breaking local news on PilotOnline.com and in The Virginian-Pilot; we remain committed to providing you with unique, credible and authoritative stories about everything from where to find the best entertainment deals to where the fish are biting to how much federal stimulus money the region will get.

Most important, we remain committed to watching out for your interests.

Who else but The Virginian-Pilot will inform you about a negligent doctor who overprescribed dangerous painkillers, about water that has been tainted by the million and a half tons of fly ash on which a golf course was built, or about a Chicago company facing federal charges of defrauding more than 1,100 investors, many of them in Hampton Roads?

Despite the financial challenges, we're also determined to keep innovating. That's why we recently launched Pulse, our new weekly entertainment section, to better serve you.

Check out the note from our publisher, Maurice Jones, on Page 11 in this section for more details about where we are headed.

There is no way to sugarcoat what is happening in the newspaper industry. The fragmentation of the marketplace has created unprecedented problems for us, but we will figure them out. Yes, we will have to keep a close watch on our expenses. In fact, we will be making a couple more changes soon to the Wednesday Daily Break and the North Carolina section to cut some costs.

But I want to say, loudly and clearly, we are not going away.

And, apparently, neither are you. When you combine print and online, our audience is bigger than ever.

We appreciate your support, and we plan to be on your doorstep every morning for a long, long time.