An editorial in the paper extolling the virtues of bowling scores and community calendars includes this line: "Sometimes career-driven journalists in pursuit of prizes and “scoops” tend to forget just how important. So it’s your job to occasionally remind them … remind us."
Is Rich Connor telling Iseman, Janoski and the other hard-hitters that times are a-changin? Discuss.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
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2 comments:
I began my J career 31 years ago, reporting for a podunk weekly. And was reminded incessantly during that internship that local news is what really matters to readers. And the more local the better. And if that means typing up a social item about how John Doe visited his cousins in Raleigh or Betty Sue had her third child, well that's just the way it is, cause that's what readers expected and wanted. Well, we've come a way since then, but that local angle is still what counts the most. Sure we'd all like nothing better than to be able to spend a week or more really digging into a scandal or something, journalists at the TL's market level would do well to keep in mind the foundations of the business.
It IS possible to do both. You CAN serve the needs of the readers by paying close attention to the slice-of-life stuff, but it is also a hometown newspaper's responsibility to expose injustices, illegal goings-on, etc. Each story has to be taken on a case-by-case basis. One thing's certain, the TL is a lot more pleasant to read these days than it was under Golas' reign, when negativity ruled. It bodes well for a sense of community that Wilkes-Barre is rebuilding on.
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