Well over 700 words to tell your readers who you are and, hidden three quarters of the way into your explanation, a brief admission (less than 50 words) focusing on the crux of why you were hired to the Dispatch.

{“My position at the Dispatch is to raise an awareness of issues that are impacting our area on a city, county, state, national and international level. In an ever-shrinking world, our readers must be aware of news down the street and around the world to be informed citizens.”}

In other words, the Dispatches readers haven’t been kept equally informed and now you’ve been brought in to promote newspaper sales to increase advertising revenues by offering something that’s been for the most part, entirely lacking or non-existent based on the heavily slanted progressive liberal mindset of the Dispatches Editorial Staff prior to your arrival.

Don’t get me wrong here but, the explanation you’re offering indicates there’s FINALLY been recognition by Morris Media, that their continual lean to the left was making many readers leave…providing them with ever shrinking circulation.

I wish you success, in your (by most conservative opinions,) ever popular endeavors, in raising awareness of issues that are impacting our area on a city, county, state, national and international level allowing your readers an awareness of news from down the street and around the world and, hopefully, making it possible for those readers, who hate your conservative views, i.e., meaning they also hate you, the option to be fully informed.

Clearly, Morris Media’s appointment of Mr. Hanson is a direct result of the dying lack of support for the Progressive Liberal ideology in this area.

Pretty much nullifies Snowda’s argument, that because of so many unverified supposed complaints by Dispatch readers regarding their interpretation of a right-wing bias, must mean the Dispatch was providing it’s readers with both sides of the issues.

If that were accurate MarciaSnowda, Mr. Hanson’s appearance on the scene, would’ve never been required .

Now, if Morris Media would only provide a couple more like Keith, Dispatch readers might be graced with the ever popular header for their editorial pieces,: "OUR OPINION."

Jeff Czeczok

It is refreshing to finally have another opinion. You sound like a comon sense kind of person.

How does your position fit into the structure of the company? If you are VP, who is the President? Who is then the editor?

Just curious.

You have an education, which Rick Santorum would call snobs.
Why do I write about Rick Santorum?
Because he's educated and I hope his objection to any form of higher education isn't because he feels he's higher and more mighty than the rest of us in the United States of America.

We know there are life circumstances which do not let folks continue any higher education.

Folks who pursue any form of higher education in general isn't any form of snobbery. Even life experiences are a higher form of education.

As my soon to be 18 year old son said, Santorum is a scarey choice for this country. Worse than Barry Goldwater of 1964.

words in your soon to be 18 year old son's mouth dutchman? Goldwater ?...come on now...did he find a frayed edged bus ticket stub to Chicago while going through your old album collection and asked if this brought back memories?

I was thinking the same thing.
Good one on the bus ticket, Myeye.

Jeff

Welcome to Keith and your family. There are many issues
that we have to deal with and we need all sides and opinions.
In my opinion, the main issue we are facing is spending by all government entities and the forever debt for our heirs.
Right on Vincent.

This one goes right on the page. Perhaps I will break it down into a series of posts...

If one follows the natural progression of other papers (e.g.: Strib. Oct. 2011, and many Morris papers), the writing is on the (digital) wall. Those of you reading this online for free today will be paying for it soon. That's probably part of Mr. Hansen's job as Veep of Audience Development.

Editor-as-provocateur is nothing new, either -- especially in media who like to be known for their right-of-center views. It gets everyone's juices flowing, and, once you bite, you might even pay to read material that increases your blood pressure!! While not an original strategy, it's one that odds-makers predict will work. Good luck, Mr. Hansen.

Mr Hansen is at the Dispatch to increase web traffic. Posting original content, and lots of it, would be covered on the first day of a hypothetical web traffic 101 course.

A daily "OUR OPINION" is original content; daily posting of the latest Dana Milbank commentary is not. I would assume Mr Hansen is encouraging Dispatch staff to utilize twitter more as there is now a feed on the front page and the staff have been tweeting much more lately. I bet the writers here will be blogging more than they have in the past, too. It's all about original content.

That said, Mr Hansen has a lot of work ahead of him if the end game is a pay wall.

j

and I was excited to read some new and fresh ideas. Unfortunately, Mr. Hansen provides neither. Everything he writes looks like a pile of national opinion pieces tossed together with a quick local hook (i.e. we here in the Brainerd Lakes Area) to make it seem original.

I was hoping for some fresh ideas to spice things up. In the past, the opinion pieces were many times lackluster, but at least they were original and written by people who actually live here and know the area. They oftentimes straddled party lines and landed in the less glamorous -- yet more populated -- middle where most people live. The new array of opinion pieces seem more concerned with placating the rabid on the far right (of which there are few, but they seem to be the loudest and most crass) while angering those who lean left.

it's always the same "rational" people that attack the rest of the people. Most of them are rabid rabble on the extreme left and claim to be from the middle.

RABID first. I repeated the word RABID. What does "rapid rabble"? Really! " have to do with you slinging mud?
Hmmmm... really?
You sure jump at every chance to attack me, maybe you need a relaxing hobby of some kind.