Bringing the News Home to Readers

* I have seen letters indicating dissatisfaction with the Valley section of your newspaper. Here is my view.

The L.A. Times’ “stature as a truly metropolitan newspaper” may be important to some, but I want my newspaper to give me the best possible coverage of local issues and news.

There are numerous other good sources of metropolitan, state, national and global news. Until now, Valley residents had only one other choice for adequate community news coverage. With the addition of the Valley section, both the residents and The Times will benefit.

The narrower focus of the Valley section has made it possible for a greater number and variety of stories to be covered that would never have made it in the “big city” publication. The quality of coverage has improved. This means better access to the paper for smaller, lesser-known groups and individuals.

I’m looking forward to the dialogue that will ensue if the Valley section editorial page appears more often. More continuity and more letters can be printed that express a wider range of opinions.

A narrowly focused section in a newspaper is not a threat or hindrance to the idea of understanding wider issues and concerns or people in other communities. The more individuals are exposed to the problems, the solutions, the failures, the successes, the joys and sorrows of the small community around them, the faster they can build foundations of experience, empathy and understanding which are needed to build the larger structures of society. One can think globally, and act locally.

DONNA AFFLERBACH

Chatsworth