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First Posted: 8/5/2014 In the coming weeks, The Times Leader will begin covering Scranton&#8217;s city council and the Lackawanna County commissioners.
With a twist.
Both government boards take action that have reach far beyond their borders. Scranton&#8217;s council members regularly discuss topics of regional importance: the city&#8217;s intermodal transit center, issues involving downtown parking garages, street closures, commuter taxes.
Topics of even greater regional interest are discussed by the county commissioners.
That&#8217;s why we&#8217;re devoting new resources to covering Lackawanna County.
I believe the audience is there.
Each week, I examine reports that detail &#8211; among many other metrics &#8211; where our audience comes from. In print, we know where we deliver and sell our newspapers &#8211; but our data-gathering ends there. We have no way of knowing if a reader in Kingston is taking his or her copy of The Times Leader into an office in Scranton. Online, we look at Facebook insights and Google analytics. Both tell us Scranton is our second-largest audience behind Wilkes-Barre &#8211; trumping even Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s suburbs.
That tells me there&#8217;s an underserved audience: commuters into Lackawanna County from Luzerne County, and residents who live in the densely populated region between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton.
That&#8217;s whom we&#8217;re primarily targeting with our coverage.
While other media outlets cover Scranton&#8217;s council with city residents in mind, and cover the commissioners with Lackawanna County residents in mind, we&#8217;ll be there looking for news of interest to our readers.
While Scranton-area media outlets might choose to focus their meeting coverage on a political issue, our coverage will slant toward news you can use. When you head into Scranton, will a festival at Courthouse Square block your commute downtown on Friday? Will repair work at a parking garage mean you should leave your house 20 minutes early so you get a spot? What might the economic impact be if Scranton&#8217;s commuter tax keeps potential employees out of the city?
Our commitment to commuter coverage extends beyond attending meetings. Each morning, timesleader.com tells you where you can find the cheapest gas and what the weather will be like. When accidents and road closures happen, we&#8217;re often the first to report them.
Separately, our core audience in Wilkes-Barre will benefit from the addition of more regional news in the paper. Lackawanna County coverage doesn&#8217;t come at the expense of anything else we&#8217;re doing. As the principal city in our metropolitan area, Scranton plays a big role in the economic health of Wilkes-Barre.
Having journalists at key meetings will only enhance our watchdog role.

COMMENTARY: GEORGE SPOHR Scranton coverage augments regional news report