Hello, Asheville. It’s great to be here.

We’re about to bring a new voice, new perspective and a new approach to all-local news in the colorful places we call home across Western North Carolina.

Here’s introducing 828newsNOW.com, which is all about the here and now.

Soon, you’ll get used to seeing us at local government meetings, at community festivals, at school events, at music venues or just stuck in traffic like everyone else. You might see us bird-watching at Beaver Lake, sitting in the cheap seats at McCormick Field or hiking toward a waterfall with a gaggle of visiting relatives in tow.

That’s because we live here, too. We love the place. And we want to add the kind of wide-eyed perspective that helps us celebrate the great things and deal with the imperfections head-on.

It’s even a surprise to me that I’m editor in chief. I thought I was done with journalism after working more than 30 years in the newspaper business. I worked for newspapers like the Rocky Mountain News of Denver, serving them as their Washington correspondent for eight years. I was there for 9/11, reported from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, and later covered presidential politics on what I called the “Back Roads to the White House.”

When the Rocky closed in 2009, just weeks shy of its 150th anniversary, I took my severance pay and bought my own little newspaper on Route 66 in New Mexico, The Guadalupe County Communicator in Santa Rosa, N.M.

Although I had done a few more important-sounding things in my career, what I did in that town of 2,711 people for eight years was the most critical journalism work I ever had done. A whole community relied on me and a small team to be their eyes and ears, to be government watchdogs, to put a spotlight on plenty of success stories but also shed light on some serious challenges folks couldn’t afford to ignore.

It was there that I really learned the value of local news: how it can be a community-building tool, keeping people engaged, involved and caring about what happens in their neighborhoods and towns.

You’ll see the lessons of that little “City of Natural Lakes” in our approach to the news at 828newsNOW.com.

We’ll cover the good news, the bad news and the curiosities in between. We’ll strive to report with accuracy and fairness. We’ll work hard to keep residents engaged by publicizing opportunities to get involved in local policy making. And we’ll try our best to be interesting, relevant and sometimes surprising.

What you will see at launch is just the beginning. It will take time for us to build full strength. Still, I hope you’ll see hints at our approach from the get-go.

I hope you’ll send me a personal note or stop me at the grocery store if you have news tips, critiques or ideas for things we can do better.

Thank you for reading this far and for welcoming me to this community six years ago. It really is terrific to be here.