Dallas South News to launch print edition

by Shawn Williams of Dallas South News

Our content partner's new venture has been two years in the making.

Photo by Shawn Williams

When I helped organize and launch Dallas South News two years ago, creating a print edition was always part of the plan. As much as we value the open web, we know there are those who still love to wake up and sit down at the breakfast table with their cup of coffee and morning newspaper.

We feel that our print edition will allow us to reach out to individuals who we have not effectively captured through our online presence. It also gives us another tool to help realize our vision: to tell the real story of every Southern Dallas community.

Words cannot express how excited I am about our foray into print. But let me be clear: we continue to be a web based organization. Unlike our friends in the traditional media who write for print and adapt to the web, our stories are produced from a web-ﬁrst mindset. From there we will work to make the content ﬁt our print aspirations.

Still, I didn’t want to print a newspaper just for the sake of saying that we did. I wanted us to design a product that embodied the spirit of innovation that is prevalent throughout DSN, from our board of directors to the members of the crew.

Fortunately, board member Neil Foote introduced me to Rhashad Hicks the creator of this phenomenal design. It is the perfect mix of contemporary and traditional and captures the essence of dallassouthnews.org. When I saw the template, I knew we were headed in the right direction.

This would not be possible were it not for our sponsors, the University of North Texas at Dallas and Texas A&M Commerce. Our inaugural issue has an emphasis on education since school is now back in session.

The feature article highlights DISD’s new Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy which opens with high expectations. We also have contributions from State Representative Barbara Mallory Caraway and Dallas County Republican Party chair Wade Emmert. This is just the beginning.

We plan to continue to push the envelope and bring more new ideas to the print arena. But in order to be effective we will need to get feedback from you. Please follow us on Twitter @dallassouthnews, like us on Facebook, and sign up for our newsletter. This is a team effort and we’re glad to have you on board.