Looking back over my career and involvement with the Times Leader, it’s remarkable how much things have changed — and what’s stayed the same. I started at the paper as a graphic designer in 2008. It quickly became apparent that I was more suited to working with the digital team, and one of my first projects was helping to redesign timesleader.com. The developers and designers the Times Leader had at that time were extremely talented, and they launched a mobile site that went on to win a number of awards.
The late 2000s was a period of extremely fast change for technology, particularly in media. The iPhone and iPad were introduced, social media was exploding, and high-definition video was coming into it’s own. Blackberry was still a major player, and Microsoft was trying its hand in the phone market. 4G was just launching, which changed how we use mobile devices.
It was interesting, to say the least, to work for a print media organization that was in the middle of a digital transformation at this time.
The way people consumed the news was changing dramatically, and traditional organizations did not have an easy time of it. From an insider’s perspective, I can tell you that old-guard print leadership was grappling with “what are we going to do about the internet,” 10 years too late.
Some media companies are still fighting that battle today.
The Times Leader has been fortunate, I think, to have leadership that recognizes the importance of changing with the times to better serve their community. We launched iPhone and Android apps pretty early in the game, and had one of the first news media iPad apps in the country. We were publishing HD videos before some TV stations. When a lot of publishers were trying to force a print business model onto their web presence, we recognized that wasn’t going to work for our market.
The list goes on and on, but suffice to say, a lot has changed over the years.
What hasn’t changed, I think, is the primary responsibility of a newspaper: to be a part of the community, to tell the story of that community, to highlight issues, and to inform. I’m proud to have been part of an organization that has fulfilled this role — in my hometown — for over 100 years. Being in the newsroom and helping to get the word out during pivotal events that impacted our area — Kids for Cash, Hurricane Irene, etc., was tremendously rewarding.
More recently, I was proud to be part of an organization that, when faced with COVID, didn’t ask “What are we going to do,” but instead asked, “How can we help the community?” We brought technology to bear on the problem and successfully navigated both the economic and logistical challenges while still fulfilling the primary mission.
Being in news media in 2024 requires an ongoing, continuous investment in technology as it advances while still being laser-focused on the responsibility we have to our community and to being a part of that community. More people read the Times Leader than ever before, and many of those people do so from our websites or on social media — and we owe that to the people of NEPA and their unflagging support of local institutions.
Nick DeLorenzo is the CTO of the Times Leader Media Group and CIO of MIDTC, LLC. He is from Mountain Top, Pennsylvania and has covered technology for the Times Leader since 2010.