News might be bad, but it’s still the news
Should a newspaper give readers what they say they want?
Or should readers get what they show they want?
We continue to see a clear difference – a disconnect – between the two.
Almost nobody wants all that bad news.
But almost everybody reads it.
MAYBE YOU SAW the letter from the reader who last week skipped our 2011 review of local crimes because he was “tired of reading about crime in the Sauk Valley and seeing the faces of the people who commit them.”
“I know, crime is a part of our world, but you emphasize it too much,” he complained. “Why don’t you report on more of the positive things that occur daily in the Sauk Valley world?
“... Perhaps if you included more articles unique to the local area, that people are interested in, you might even see an increase in circulation.”
If only it were that easy.
SHORTLY AFTER this editor previewed that letter this past Monday morning, he received an email from the newspaper’s online editor.
“Throughout 2011, many people on Facebook complained that we overloaded the feed with bad news,” he observed. “They wanted to see more good news. But every year I check the stats and it shows us the opposite.
“... So, why then, do people ‘say’ they want to see more good news, but are drawn more to the bad?”
If only the answer were simple.
AND IT WASN’T JUST our 4,400 or so Facebook friends who were fascinated by stories about death and tragedy – some call it “news” – during 2011.
Our online readers turn to saukvalley.com by the thousands to get details when bad things happen.
As we reported in our “year in review” package last Saturday, the tragic electrocution of two teens last summer brought more than 38,000 page views to the website – the most of any story in 2011.
Our first reports of a triple homicide in 2011 attracted more than 34,600 views. A later report that included the names of the victims picked up an additional 6,773 views.
The top 10 online stories (as determined by page views) also included a 7-year-old child abuse victim who died, a missing corn detasseler who later was found dead, a traffic fatality that took the life of a public official ...
Like it or not, that’s news.
And people want the news.
SEVERAL ARTICLES were posted on our Facebook page this past Monday morning.
One was a family profile of a Dixon physician who has gone to Kuwait to treat U.S. military men and women. How is that for something positive in the Sauk Valley world?
Another story was about the arrest of a woman who had been sought by police in connection with a theft at a local department store.
Online editor Angel Sierra reported this response by the Facebook crowd:
“In one hour, the Dixon doc saw 42 clicks. In 4 minutes, the Kohl’s lady saw 130 clicks.”
We’ve always known that news sells newspapers.
It also attracts online eyeballs.
OUR REPORT ON the Dixon doctor, Robb Rydzynski, made the front page of our Monday print editions, complete with a photo of his beautiful family.
Page One that morning also included a story about the first baby born in the new year at KSB Hospital. Welcome to Dixon, Kage Scott Schechter.
Inside that paper, on Page 3A, were photos of some local people who took part in last Saturday’s Polar Bear Plunge, an icy dip into Crystal Lake to help raise funds that support the good deeds of the Sterling-Rock Falls Jaycees.
On the cover of the Sports section was an interesting profile of two men with local connections who have been chosen for the 2012 Hall of Fame class of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association. Jaron McCracken was a basketball star at Amboy High School in the mid-1990s, and Steve McGrath of Rock Falls has been a referee for 37 years.
Those kinds of “good news” stories reflect the lives of the many good people who live and work in the Sauk Valley.
OF COURSE, NOT everything in the newspaper that day was positive community news.
Page 5A included our weekly preview of criminal cases that have hearings scheduled in local courts. That feature usually includes the photos of several of the defendants.
But, like most editions of this newspaper, the vast majority of local stories in the Monday edition were positive to neutral as they reported daily life in our communities.
Experience tells us, however, that it’s the bad news that sticks in the memory.
