The Turnaround

A standing format, published every Friday morning with the weekend page. Named for the thing that runs the town's calendar. Five short sections, same order every week, written by a person.

1. What changed this week

Three to five lines: a place that opened, one that closed, an hours change worth knowing, a permit filed for something interesting, a road that's torn up. Pulled from the new-openings feed, the closures re-check and the construction file, then written like a neighbor telling you.

2. The weekend, in one paragraph

Not the list — the list is on the weekend page. The call: what kind of weekend it is and the one thing to do if you only do one.

3. The plants

A paragraph when there's something: a turnaround starting or ending, a flare that got noticed, a TCEQ report worth a sentence, a hiring surge. Silence when there isn't. The CAER line at the bottom every week.

4. Then and now

One historical photo from the archive with two lines of caption, rotating through the series. The most-shared thing on the page, every week.

5. The question

One reader question, answered in four lines with a source, from the questions queue. Readers submit through the form; the column picks one.

Tone rules: first person plural is fine ("we drove out to check"). No exclamation marks. One joke maximum. Corrections from last week go at the top, not the bottom. Always under 500 words; people read it on a phone at a plant gate.

Distribution: the Thursday newsletter carries sections 2 and 5; the Facebook post carries section 2; the full column lives at /column/<date>/ and the archive at /column/. Each week's column links every place it names.

Why it works: it's the only thing on the site that's new every week in a voice, which is what makes a site a habit instead of a lookup.