When an old colleague, Mike Levine, executive editor of The Times Herald-Record, says he wants to hear from readers he puts his money where his mouth is:

We have a 2 p.m. daily weekday news meeting where we decide what stories go on Page One. This is the inner sanctum, folks. Come on in, you're invited. And you're welcome to speak up.

Later in the afternoon, a few of us gather 'round a computer screen, write the front page headlines and design the first draft of a front page. We're saving a space around that screen for you.

Some of you believe a newspaper is a collection of conspiracies and personal agendas. The fix is in. It's all a plot, a payoff, a bias. We could tell you from here till Christmas that we don't have time for lunch, let alone conspiracies. But I want you to judge for yourself. Sit in on a morning meeting where the day's stories are planned. Maybe we're missing something. We want your two cents.

A word about The Record: it's a daily newspaper serving New York's Hudson Valley with a circulation close to 100,000. It's the second-largest newspaper in the Dow Jones chain, after The Wall Street Journal.

While many newspapers hire ombudsmen for reader outreach, The Record seems like it's cutting out the middleman.