Thank you, North Texas, for your warm welcome

From my first brief visit to Dallas to a few weeks ago when I officially made the city my home, I always had the same thought: This is a community whose members care a lot for one another.

And it’s one that greeted and hugged me with open arms as I started exploring the city. I’ve visited and ate restaurants in Lowest Greenville, Knox-Henderson and Uptown, downtown and Frisco, taken a gondola ride in Las Colinas, listened to live music in Deep Ellum, and strolled the NorthPark Center as a couple.

I even saw a LSU (Geaux Tigers) game with fellow alumni in Lower Greenville. I hope to see a Saints game there soon too. It’s my home-state team, but I appreciate having so many passionate cowboys fans right now.

Pretty much everywhere I have been, I have heard “Welcome to Texas” from so many of you as soon as you found out I was a new resident.

I feel humbled and honored to serve as editor of the Dallas Morning News, a newspaper I have admired since my days at LSU, where a professor once told me how happy I would be if I ever got a job here would get.

It’s a privilege too. Journalism has been all I ever wanted to do since middle school.

And every opportunity I’ve had to work in journalism, first as a college student at my hometown newspaper The Advocate of Baton Rouge, later at The Virginian Pilot, and in recent years at The Greenville News in South Carolina and at The Indianapolis Star, I’ve never lost sight of why I love this job.

And I certainly won’t do that here in Dallas, where I want to live for many years to come.

I was so drawn to journalism because I wanted to share the stories of the neglected, wanted to do the kind of work that would hold those we choose accountable and respect in order to find the hidden gems that exist in every city that makes Dallas and so many others unique and special.

As I’ve said this before, and you will probably say it again, no thriving, growing, and energetic city can truly thrive without a strong news organization.

It is clear that many of you think so too.

During my first few weeks, through emails and phone calls, you shared your thoughts on stories we published, sometimes making suggestions on how we should write more on certain topics, and occasionally asking why we chose to highlight a topic .

We’re happy about every Feedback.

As I get to know Dallas and continue to hold weekly meetings to introduce myself to so many of you, you will know that I am doing so with the mission that the company’s founders so eloquently articulated nearly 136 years ago.

We are dedicated to the issues that affect daily life in North Texas.

And while so many things have changed in journalism today since the newspaper was founded, I can tell you with certainty that our mission has not and will not change.

The Dallas Morning News tries to cover problems as well as solutions; we try to question, highlight and examine.

We want to be your top local destination for news on topics that affect you today and tomorrow and in the years to come.

In the first few weeks of my working with our passionate and talented staff, we covered only broken stories about how a mistake by an IT professional at Dallas City Hall resulted in the postponement of the murder trial of at least one man, and questions about how local prosecutors can safely proceed with dozens of other criminal cases that may be lacking evidence.

We took you to a local children’s hospital that is overcrowded with young COVID-19 patients.

And we provided you with updated scores and results from dozens of local high school soccer games on Thursday and Friday evenings.

We vigorously defend our commitment through our work to make a difference.

North Texas and this state are just as important to the news journalists as they are to you. They went to school here, bought houses, their aging parents moved here, and some of us are now sending our children to schools here. And like me, they eat and support local restaurants and countless other businesses on a daily basis.

They cannot do their important work without your support.

If you haven’t already, subscribe to the Dallas Morning News and support dozens of journalists who stand up for you.

If we are not part of your daily routine, I hope we will soon be.

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