Change Backs

Editorial

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – This week is my first back on editing duty after four and half months. Doug Gray has been leading the charge since June while I tended to some business in New York, and he’s done a great job. Now he’s going to be focusing on some more important things – soon to be expecting a baby boy.

Doug will continue sub-editing and other operational work, being a key part of our organization, as well as a fine reporter recently published in the UK Sunday Telegraph.

Since we’re bragging, we should also mention Felicity Clarke being published in the UK’s Guardian in August. Also locally, long-time contributor Jaylan Boyle and relatively new reporter Oliver Bazely have been published in our BCS friend’s The Umbrella.

It seems like a good time to note some other changes to The Rio Times, like our new Travel Services. This is both a way to offer our Readers an easy way to book flights, as well as finding new (albeit small) revenue streams to help us grow. Another new feature is the Surveys and Polls, so far we’ve only published two (for the Brazilian elections), but we’re excited to continue them in the future.

Something we put in place months ago that may not be obvious (or interesting) to our Readers, but certainly is to our Advertisers, is an AdServing system. This is important because it helps us provide detailed reports on ad views (aka “impressions”), as well as how many times people click on those ads. The AdServing system also allows us better control rotating and managing the amount of impressions each ad is seen.

But enough about us, we are also closing in on the end of the Brazilian election run-off round and a changing of leadership. Our coverage continues, as well as our Election Poll, which our Readers currently put Rousseff ahead with a comfortable lead.

Also coincidentally the same week marks the U.S. 2010 Congressional elections, and even this late, it’s still possible to get your ballot and return it on time if you’re a U.S. citizen living overseas. Thanks to our friends at the Overseas Vote Foundation, we’ve received an informative Letter to the Editor about the process.

A last note is the time change we’ve had here in Brazil last Saturday. With the start of summer in the southern hemisphere we’re afforded another hour of sunlight. The only down-side is it puts us two hours ahead of New York now. What’s worse is in another few weeks the U.S. will “fall back” another hour, making the time difference three hours with EST, and of course six with California. Inconvenient, but a small price to pay for changing into the summer season.