You might have noticed staff writer Ben Flanagan’s byline on the story today about Tuesday’s Billingsley-Isabella softball games. You might have also noticed that Ben has written the last several stories about Isabella sports in our newspaper.

We’re trying a fresh approach to sports coverage here at The Clanton Advertiser that we think will allow us to produce better content for our readers.

In the past, our sports editor (most recently, yours truly) has been responsible for planning sports coverage, producing all the stories and photos, and then designing the sports page or section each day. Sure, sports editors also had to contribute in ways that aren’t related to sports and everyone has to help out on football Friday nights. But the general rule was the sports guy (or gal) did the sports.

As part of a new overall beat structure, each staff member here is going to have his own coverage area. Ben, for example, will be the primary person responsible for covering Isabella and Maplesville—not just sports but town council meetings, police activity, etc.

The changes will allow each of us to get out in our respective communities more, to get to know you, the residents, and learn your stories. Also, with new people come new ideas about the stories we need to tell and how to tell them. That’s exciting for us as writers, and we hope you, the reader, share that enthusiasm with us.

I’ll still be responsible for planning our sports coverage, so, if you have a story we need to know about, feel free to talk to whomever might be covering your baseball or softball game or to call me here at the office (755-5747 extension 20).

We might be changing up who goes where, but everyone here at The Clanton Advertiser is still committed to covering Chilton County and the stories that matter to you.