I was sorting through my emails when I re-read the one that my former boss wrote to announce my resignation earlier this year. Here’s part of it:

“I wanted to let you all know that Andre has decided to start a new entrepreneurial venture and will be leaving us. He is developing a website for Birmingham that will be designed to encourage comments and reactions to the news. It is a conversation-oriented news source.”

There’s some other stuff in there, but it was those last two sentences that began to ring in my head. Looking back, I think that he’s probably done the best job ever when explaining what this site is truly about. When I started this site in April, I assumed that with all of the conversations and all of the opinions out here in the Magic City that folks would want to share them and figure out ways to link some of them together and have some meaningful discussions about what’s been done and what needs to be done, and act on the results of those virtual talks. We’ve made some headway so far, but I’m still not sure if we’re encouraging enough of that conversation to take place. So what do you do?

In my case, I take a moment to realize that I’ve strayed from my intended mission – I deviated from the work plan (to use lingo from my old job). I’d let some folks point me in a direction that didn’t encourage dialogue. I’d hoped that I’d be able to get some of those folks considered lurkers, (folks that read the site but that don’t necessarily make a comment about what’s posted though they definitely want to say something), more involved in the conversation. That’s the main reason why when someone asks if I’m competing with folks, I normally say “not if you get it.”

If I wanted to worry about being primarily a news site, we’d be optimizing headlines much in the same way that The Birmingham News has started recently. What I want is for this site to be part of an ever changing dialogue that will help move our region forward. I want it to reflect this renewed energy that seems to be bubbling up to the surface.

Now we’ll still get information up on this site to make sure that folks to know about what’s going on, but now we’re going to encourage that dialogue to take place in those coffeehouses and living rooms and on those street corners like I talked about early on.

In this week’s newsletter I hinted at what would become our signature, but unconventional, speakers’ series. Well, it’s our intention to announce our first topic and location in the near future. Many of the early topics will be based on the results of this year’s YP issues survey done with YP NOW.

There will be limits on the amount of folks that can attend in person based on where we hold them, but we’ll make sure that there are ways that we can get folks involved in the conversation. The folks subscribed to our newsletter (the express) will have first crack at attending our talks. If you need to subscribe, visit our front page and fill out the form in the middle column. The simple version is… well, we’ll wait to describe it once we’ve secured information about the first topic.

So what do we need from you? We need you to spread the word, encourage more folks to visit and comment in our various sections and encourage like-minded businesses and organizations to consider taking a look at our rate card. We need you to lend your voice to this dialogue as well, as it cannot just be my opinions filling these pages. In return, we’ll serve as a hub for conversation, that conversation-oriented news source that it looks like people really want.

If you’ve got any ideas for stuff to do next year, put it in the comments section. Happy Holidays!

… and enjoy the ride!

André Natta is the publisher and managing editor of The Terminal. To submit letters in response to this commentary or to contact for general information, use any of the methods listed on our contact page.