Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Tuesday.

Every year or two, we at the Tribune like to sit down with our readers during an official reader advisory forum.

The purpose of the forum is to find out what items in the newspaper people enjoy reading, what they could do without and where we can improve.

It’s a time I look forward to each year, and it is something we walk alway excited from as we set out to implement some of the ideas we have heard.

This year, we had our forum last week, and I thought we had several great conversations.

We talked about which parts of the newspaper they go to first when they pick up the paper and which writers and columnists they like best. We also discussed their favorite and least favorite parts of each of the different sections of the paper.

Readers said they enjoy reading the Opinion Page, local human interest stories, local event stories and local sports stories.

Some said they liked to read more about the positive news; others said they understand the value of the more negative news like crime news but wish it wouldn’t always be on the front page.

We also talked about the Nine Dimensions of a Healthy Community as identified by the Blandin Foundation. These dimensions are inclusion, community leadership, lifelong learning, recreational and artistic opportunity, spirituality and wellness, economic opportunity, environmental stewardship, safety and security, and infrastructure and services.

We strive to cover all of these dimensions and regularly fall back on these networks to make sure we are covering news that is important to a healthy community.

The discussion that stuck out to me most was about reaching out to younger readers and possibly inviting students from Albert Lea High School to participate in a regular column on the Opinion Page.    

How to reach young readers has been a topic on the forefront of our minds already as we are in the middle of a new day and age in technology and these readers get their news in different ways.

We welcome any other constructive feedback anyone might like to provide. We strive to report the news to the best of our abilities and always strive to be an organization you can trust.

On a sidenote, it’s almost time for our spring Sports Yearbook, and we’re sending our May/June issue of Albert Lea magazine this week. There’s never a dull moment around this part of town.

We look forward to seeing what you think of these two publications.