‘Newsworthy’ is in the eye of the beholder
Readers frequently question whether their newspaper knows what is really “newsworthy.”
In two recent complaints, readers actually used that journalism slang – newsworthy.
Both cases involved readers who had offered information to “the newspaper,” but no story was ever published.
Those readers let the editor know they were disappointed in our performance.
“I feel that I have every right to be disappointed,” one reader said in her email, “considering some of the news articles you have printed recently that I totally disagree were ‘newsworthy.’”
AS IT TURNED OUT, neither request actually got to the news department, which is only one part of “the newspaper.”
But if you want something published on the news pages, the news department has to know about it.
The reporters and editors in that department make the decisions about what gets published – and what doesn’t.
People sometimes assume that information they give to anybody at “the newspaper” – in any department – will find its way to the folks who ought to have it, whether it’s a news story, a photograph, or an advertisement.
And it usually does get to the right people.
But this newspaper is like any organization with more than a hundred employees and contractors: things sometimes fall through the cracks.
WHEN THIS EDITOR found out what the readers were trying to get to his department, he confirmed the newspaper was interested in publishing the information.
In one case, the complaint arrived by email Monday afternoon. A related news story was published Wednesday morning.
In the other case, the editor asked to be provided with details so we could contact the right sources. That was more than a week ago, and the editor has yet to receive that information.
But as soon as it arrives, we’ll get on it.
WE’VE MENTIONED it before, but it bears repeating:
Newsworthy things that don’t get into the paper are things we don’t know about.
People sometimes assume newspaper reporters and editors know everything that’s going on. We don’t.
We have a couple of dozen people who work in the news and sports departments of this newspaper.
And we operate in a market area of well over 100,000 residents.
As they say, do the math. Those are long odds.
That’s why we also depend on our tens of thousands of readers to help us know about news throughout the area.
So, lend us your eyes and ears. Let us know what you see and hear that needs to be in the newspaper.
WHEN SOMEONE asks us to publish something, our approach is dictated by a simple customer service promise: Find some way to say yes to every reasonable request.
Not everything is front-page news, of course, but we can find a place to publish just about any news of public interest.
If you read the Community section of our Saturday edition, SV Weekend, you know we publish a wide variety of community news and photos that our readers have submitted – details about local births, pictures of winning teams, school honor rolls, profiles of outstanding students, pictures of award winners and honorees ... and on and on.
So, don’t assume we have judged your information not to be “newsworthy” just because you don’t see it in the paper.
Chances are, it just fell through the cracks.
SOMETIMES, however, we just have to decline an offer.
If you read our Wednesday editions, you might have seen an article about a Lee County Board committee that discussed improving the image of county government.
One board member said he had repeatedly tried, without success, to get this newspaper to publish stories on all of the county offices and detail the work they do.
Every county in this area would love to be featured like that.
So would every city, every village, every township, every school district, every park district ... well, you get the idea.
IN FACT, WE OFTEN profile interesting people who work in those government subdivisions.
But why do stories on all the offices? Why would that appeal to readers?
That does, however, sound like good information for a local government’s website as a civics resource for people who are interested.
We’re quite sure, however, that most people are not.
And we wouldn’t consider that a very good use of our limited news resources – time and space.
It’s tough enough keeping up with things that are really newsworthy.
