We are a month into the East Oregonian publishing as a regional newspaper. This remains a work in progress, and one of the major shifts we’ve made in this transition is in our newsrooms.

Rather than working as individual silos, we’re working much more like a regional newsroom to cover Northeastern Oregon.

So instead of news teams dedicated to certain topics, as we had formerly, anyone in our newsrooms can pitch an idea for a regional story and take the lead on that. We hold a weekly news meeting with all our EOMG “eastside” staff to kick around those kinds of ideas and help shape up stories. As we continue this shift, we’ve noticed things to tweak.

For example, a photo caption in the Blue Mountain Eagle might not need to say if a street was in John Day because all of the Eagle’s readers would probably know that. Now readers in Hermiston and Enterprise might read a John Day story, so we need to make sure we catch those gaps.

Our stories online include a “tagline” — little bit of information at the end of the story about how to contact a reporter. You can find that same information in every print edition in the “publication box” at the bottom of A4. So if you read a report or a feature from La Grande Observer reporter Isabella Crowley and want to contact her, please do.

Your feedback is not just something we appreciate, we consider it vital.

If you have any questions about what and how we do what we do, please ask. The same goes for any feedback you want to offer. You can email me at editor@bmeagle.com or email East Oregonian editor Phll Wright at editor@eastoregonian.com.

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Your digital subscription access has been expanded to include the East Oregonian, La Grande Observer, Hermiston Herald, Baker City Herald, Wallowa County Chieftain, and Blue Mountain Eagle. 

For all digital access: 

• Register your account on every site you wish to read with the same email address and password you currently use.

• Once you’ve registered, enter your user name and password to enjoy the full range of content on that news site.

• You should not have to log in again unless you log out, clear history or experience software updates.

• Save your password when prompted by your browser and if you are inadvertently logged out, your browser can fill in your login and password for you. (Only use this option on your personal digital devices.)

To view the latest e-Editions, be sure to register your account and sign in to www.eastoregonian.com. 

Sign up for e-newsletters from each website by going to the “Email lists” link on your account dashboard for each site.

Thank you for supporting local journalists in Eastern Oregon. 

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact us at 800-781-3214 or email support@eomediagroup.com.

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Finally, if you’re not already a subscriber and you’d like to help support our independent local journalism, please consider subscribing to the newspaper. And if you’re already a subscriber, please accept our heartfelt thanks — we can’t do this work without you!

— Bennett Hall, Editor