On Jan. 6, 2000, the Reno News & Review introduced the logo you now know and love, with a cover featuring an extreme close-up of Don Carano. I remember this well … because I was the person who did the corresponding story, a Q&A with the late, great founder of the Eldorado.
Ever since, our covers have more or less had the same format: The logo—with a red background, white letters and a black ampersand—was at the top left, with some sort of teaser next to it. The look of the teaser, the location of the date and a few other small details have changed over the years, but the basic structure and look have been the same for 23 years.
Starting this month, however, we’re mixing things up a bit, to give the cover more of a modern feel.
The logo is the same—I can’t see that ever changing, at least as long as I have anything to do with this newspaper—but it’s now centered at the top. The teaser is gone. While red will still be the dominant logo color most months, it won’t necessarily always be the dominant logo color.
This is just one of the changes we’ve brought to the RN&R in recent months; the others all involve the addition, or the return, of various features:
• Columnist Sheila Leslie has returned to our pages. She wrote her Left Foot Forward column in these pages from late 2012 through March 2020, when, well, the RN&R went away for a bit. The Reno Gazette-Journal was smart enough to pick up the column by the former legislator, nonprofit leader and activist … and then dumb enough to let her (and most of the rest of their columnists) go during their latest round of cuts and hacks. We’re elated to have her column back (where it belongs!).
• This is now the second month for our new On Nevada Business column. It is being spearheaded by Matt Westfield, entrepreneur-in-residence and adjunct professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, College of Business and its Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship. It will focus on the cool things going on locally regarding business startups, small-business opportunities, the local economy, and more. Fun fact: Back in 2005, Matt was featured in an RN&R story … about Ultimate Frisbee!
• In our food section, and you’ll find our new-ish Taste of the Town column—featuring a roundup of local food and restaurant news, lovingly compiled by Maude Ballinger, the mastermind of Fork Me Reno (www.forkmereno.com). (I say “new-ish,” because Jonathan L. Wright wrote Taste of the Town during our online-only phase, before he moved on to Las Vegas.) Welcome, Maude!
All of this great new content, I must point out, costs the RN&R money. Writers need to be paid; pages need to be added to the print version of paper; etc. If you flip through the 32 pages of our March print edition, you’ll notice there’s a lot more news than ads.
That’s where you, our dear readers, come in: We need your support.
If you own a business, consider advertising with us. Not only will you be helping us; you’ll be bringing customers in the door. We’re distributing 25,000 copies of the paper each month, and virtually all of them are being picked up—even if some businesses have made the copies harder to find, as Frank mentions in his Editor’s Note this month. (And, hey, if you want your business to become a distribution stop, let us know!) We also have a fantastic website that gets tens of thousands of readers each month, and newsletter with 13,000 subscribers.
If you don’t own a business, but you have a buck or three to spare, consider becoming an RN&R financial supporter. Click “Support Us” in the upper right of this page, or just drop me a line, to learn more.
Our goal is to make 2023 one of the best years in the RN&R’s history. With your help, we can make that happen.