By JACKIE TAYLOR | October 14, 2026

Changes

Ah, exciting times ahead! We heard our community speak and we are making some cool changes to improve the Linn County News.

First, check out the new website design (www.linncountynews.net); it is not done yet, but many of the bones are there. We expect to add another page for area events! That will be a fun one and, hopefully, fill a gap in “what’s there to do around here?”

We revamped the website to be more colorful, have greater ease of finding information and we’re working to meld all of our social media together so Gen X through Gen Youngster can find information they are interested in.

Many more changes are in the pipeline for us; based on comments we received from our focus group – we have begun the process to make your paper more what you want.

As we roll out more changes, I’ll keep you apprised. 

I do want to thank our focus group; we appreciate you all taking time out of your day to help our KU coordinator dissect what the community feels about the paper. It takes truthful thought to improve anything, and the paper is not exempt from that process.

I also want to thank all who filled out the survey! That was amazing and I appreciate it; we blew out the number of respondents KU was hoping to get. Information garnered from the short survey filled in gaps that will help us cater more to the desires of our community.

Please be patient with us on major changes; sometimes big changes come in small steps with lots of research how to initiate change in a smart manner. We want to provide a good product, at a fair price, but don’t want to hurt ourselves in the process.

As in any venture, growing pains do occur. I appreciate the patience our advertising customers have – we are blessed to have new sales people and with that, we are charting our course with them to accommodate our public, new website opportunities and much more.

Again, thank you to Linn County for an overwhelming response and great ideas for the future!

On another note, totally, we have a little less than three weeks of attack ads to endure on the television. 

There are times I think candidates need to get into a ring, don gloves and duke it out until the last person is standing. Basically, that is what they do now, but it’s through vying TV ads.

Heaven help us (voters) as we endure this malarkey. 

But, on the bright side, we’ll have a two-month sabbatical from more political commercials before they begin again for the 2028 election. Ugh.

Between the negative online blogs we endure and the negative television commercials, the American public doesn’t have a chance. No wonder people are checking out from social media and national media.

The 500th time we all listen to a craptastic commercial tearing down another person, we’re done. 

Apparently political forums are not the thing anymore. When Joe skipped them to stay in his basement in 2020, it seemed like the political landscape changed and politicians no longer had to go in front of voters. Now, they use commercials to tell their story and many skip in-person visits.

There’s nothing like meeting someone in person to see what they are really like. Being a sales person, I read body language, tones in speech, handshakes, and more to understand a person. TV commercials and online ads can be altered to say or look anyway someone wants them to; a far cry from knowing someone by meeting them.

Hopefully, the American people will see through the BS engulfing them and vote the best person for the people of our nation into office.

Thank you again for your participation in our own special project; we’ll keep you posted on changes coming.