The Times are changing

The Navajo Times will present a fresh look and a new design starting next Thursday, August 27. Our redesign project is something that we have been working on since early spring and now we are ready to present it to our readers and advertisers.

It is our constant goal to provide our readers with a complete newspaper that is informative, entertaining and interesting to read. Whether you are reading the print copy, our online edition or browsing our website, we want to make reading the Navajo Times an enjoyable experience.

To improve and enhance that feeling, we intend to make the Navajo Times easier to read and follow, through our redesign efforts.

The new design will feature a modernized nameplate or Navajo Times logo that sits atop the newspaper, different and larger text fonts, new headline formats, page headers, column logos and photo captions. Basically, we will unveil a new layout and design that should be easy on the eyes.

What we will not change, however, is our watchdog reporting and up-to-date coverage of important issues, our feature stories, colorful art and photography, wide-range sports coverage, informative notices and advertising, and our original editorial pages complete with your letters and Jack Ahasteen’s editorial cartoon.

Another important value of the Navajo Times that will not change is a journalistic respect for our Navajo people, culture and tradition. You will not see photos of dead people on the front page of the Navajo Times. Unlike other newspapers, the Navajo Times does not use sensationalistic articles and photographs to sell newspapers. We do not prey on the hurt, sadness, pain and sorrow of other humans to increase paper sales.

Photographs of people who have frozen to death or were killed in a terrible auto accident do not belong on the front page of any publication. That is not journalism and that is not the way to treat people.

We will, however, continue to publish hard news and ask the hard questions. As a watchdog newspaper there are frequent times when people are offended or angered at the questions we must ask, or the articles we publish. But, the Navajo Times does not make the news. Rather, we report the news. We do not create the story, we tell the story, the best way we know how.

We do have our critics though, and they will challenge us regularly on our publication and anything we do as a business. But, that’s all right because at least we know they are reading the paper. Even today, there are government officials and elected leaders that still think the Navajo Times should print only positive articles about the government and the people. They want us to be a newsletter, and not a newspaper.

That is why it is important that we maintain and strengthen our independence from the tribal government. The Navajo Times Publishing Company, Inc. is a for-profit corporation of the Navajo Nation. The shares in our corporation are actually owned by the Navajo people and the tribal government is merely the caretaker of those shares.

As NTPC, Inc. we currently operate as an independent business and we generate and operate on our own revenue. We do not make millions of dollars in profit like some of the tribal enterprises do but we do generate enough revenue to make a small profit that is reinvested into the corporation.

It is refreshing and important to know that a majority of our Navajo people enjoy and acknowledge the importance of having a free press. With the Navajo Times, that basic First Amendment right has been fought for and defended many times in its long history. I know that for a fact.

One of our long-term corporate goals is to one day become a privately owned business, totally separate from the Navajo Nation government. Ideally, we would sell our shares to interested Navajo citizens, and then they would truly be the owners of the Navajo Times. That is a plan that is still in the organizational process with many serious legal issues and business options to consider. It’s an exciting goal to work toward nonetheless and it may not be achieved during my time here but it will happen one day.

The Navajo Times is 55 years old now as of this month and as you can see there is so much history of the newspaper and of the Navajo people and the Navajo Nation that are forever tied together. We intend to continue to add to our history in a positive manner by improving our newspaper and promoting our business growth.

One of those ways that we will improve and grow is through the launch of our new redesign of the Navajo Times. We have a full-page advertisement in this week’s issue that depicts some of back issues from each of the past five decades. This is all part of Navajo history captured in the pages of the Navajo Times.

We are proud to publish our award-winning newspaper each week for you – our readers and advertisers. Just as in past generations, the Navajo Times will continue to record and publicize the people, events and news of our time, so that it can be shared with today’s readers and those of the future.

Starting next Thursday, we will present the articles, photographs and advertisements in a new, bold fashion. Yes folks, the Times are changing.

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