Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

 

The blast of cold air and snow from this past weekend has got me thinking ahead to the winter season. Here at the Tribune, it’s a busy time of year as we just wrapped up our November/December issue of Albert Lea Magazine and are heading into our preparations for our annual Progress edition.

Our magazine was a fun one to make this go-around, as it includes several stories with holiday-centered themes. It brought back all the warm feelings associated with Christmastime, and some people at the office even joked about turning on the Christmas music. (And then came the discussion about when is it OK to start playing Christmas music. My pick is after Thanksgiving.)

This issue of the magazine, combined with the cooler temperatures, also motivated me to start looking for some new recipes for soups and warm foods — and of course, Christmas cookies. You can never have too many recipes for those, and it’s fun to try out new ideas occasionally.

Looking ahead to next year, we’re planning a new special bridal issue of the magazine for the January/February issue combined with all the regular staples of our normal issues, and we have some fun ideas we’re working on for that.

Aside from the magazine, soon our whole office will meet to discuss ideas for our 2020 Progress section, which is our biggest special section of the year. It’s something we take great pride in and work on for about four months. Though we’re still figuring out what our theme will be, we welcome ideas from you — our readers — about people, businesses or initiatives happening that are moving the community forward. You can email me at sarah.stultz@albertleatribune.com or give me a call at 379-3433 with ideas. We will promote more about our theme once it is selected.

It will also soon be time for another Sports Yearbook, which will feature our high school athletes participating in winter sports.

As always, we’d love to hear about what things you like, what things you’d like to see more and even what things you’d like to see less with our coverage.

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Albert Lea Tribune.