You have spoken, and we are listening.
Yes, the Kannapolis Citizen is publishing obituaries again. This week, they are on pages 7 and 9. There are a lot of obituaries, but we don’t mind running what our readers want to read.
If you didn’t notice we weren’t running obituaries, you were one of the three people who didn’t call us to say how disappointed they were.
Obituaries are a large part of life, we’ve noticed ó which is kind of ironic, if you really think about it.
The editorial staff at the Kannapolis Citizen decided in November to take obituaries out of the newspaper on a trial basis and publish more North Carolina Research Campus news. We have only so much space, after all.
At first, no one seemed to notice. A week went by. Then two.
That’s when the calls started. First, it was just a call every now and then ó maybe once a week. Then, as more people realized we weren’t running obituaries and it wasn’t just a freak week, more and more calls poured in.
You guys love your obituaries, I’ll give you that.
That decision to stop publishing obituaries on trial basis looked to be a bad thing. Then again, we did find out how deeply our readers care about what’s in the paper ó and that’s a good problem to have.
I understand why obituaries are so important. It’s not fun to see that a friend or family member of a friend has passed on, but knowing they have died is knowledge that you wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Obituaries are a fount of information about people too. They go home to be with Jesus and the angels, and you learn nicknames and hobbies and even which room they worked in at the mill, in many instances. You learn about their families, how many children they had and, in many cases, how many grandchildren they claimed.
Sometimes, we’ve even gotten a story or two out of the obituaries.
Our callers let us know they missed the obituaries. We received calls from subscribers in Concord, Kannapolis and Salisbury, all eager to have the obituaries back in the Kannapolis Citizen.
Many callers told us the Kannapolis Citizen obituaries helped them keep up with what was happening in their hometown, as they had moved to retirement centers in other cities.
I’m happy to say that we’ve brought obituaries back for our readers ó for good.
You should be happy that with the Kannapolis Citizen, our readers do have a voice, and we listen to you.
We want to know what else you like and don’t like about the Kannapolis Citizen. What works for you? What you would like to see us scratch from the pages of your newspaper completely?
Let us know.
As you have learned from the obituaries, you are important to us. We want to keep you as a reader.
To let us know what you think about the Citizen’s content, e-mail jmorris@kannapolis citizen.com, call 704-932-3336 or mail a letter or drop by the office and speak to us directly at 221 West A St., Kannapolis, NC 28081.
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Joanie Morris is editor of the Kannapolis Citizen. She can be reached at 704-932-3336 or jmorris @kannapoliscitizen.com.