From the editor: Reflecting on a year of change and looking ahead to 2024

As we embark on a new year, it’s only natural to take a few minutes to reflect on the past year.

At the StarNews, 2023 brought a lot of change. Within the Gannett company, we became part of the Center for Community Journalism, a structure within the company’s local news division that provides leadership, editing and planning for medium and small newspapers across the country.

The StarNews also moved into a new office space on New Centre Drive. While our offices aren’t open to the public, you can reach me via email at sjones1@gannett.com if you have questions about our local news stories or if you have ideas for local coverage. We want to know what issues and topics are important to local residents.

The most recent change has come with our launch earlier this month of a reimagined print edition on Sundays . We’ve increased the number of local stories with an emphasis on transparency, impactful journalism and community engagement.

We’ve received many positive responses from readers who say they really like the new format and find the articles interesting. One of the biggest questions I received after the first issue was why we focused the cover story on growth and development in Brunswick County.

More: As Brunswick County booms, here's how massive growth could make it the area's major player

The short answer is because it’s one of the fastest growing in the country and is an important issue for the region. The longer answer is that the StarNews coverage area includes New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties. We strive to provide a mix of content from all three and to publish trend stories on issues impacting readers across the region.

And growth is happening everywhere. Take a look at today’s cover story, which highlights public and private projects coming to New Hanover County in 2024. And that’s just a fraction of the projects we could have included.

New year, new developments: 13 projects to watch in New Hanover County in 2024

Since growth and development issues have been facing residents and leaders for years now and things don’t seem to be slowing down, we’ll continue to focus on those topics in the year ahead. I’m feeling optimistic about the ideas we have for local stories and in-depth projects, including more reporting on the debate over what to do about the aging Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

Sherry Jones is the StarNews executive editor. You can reach her by email at sjones1@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: From the editor: Reflecting on a year of change and looking ahead to 2024