| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Carolinagirl |
Posted - Aug 16 2007 : 2:26:48 PM
Okay, I used to be a reporter in a former life (without children). I hate my local paper- it isn't accurate, misquotes people and doesn't cover many of the community things I would like to see in a local paper (not to mention that one of it's reporters took a press release I wrote and put her byline on it!). Several weeks ago when I was complaining about it once again, my FIL (who is from here) said "Well, why don't you just start another paper?"
Huh. Start another paper? I'd dreamed of that, but was it really possible? The more I thought about it, the more feasible it became, especially since there is a good portion of the county that doesn't really care for the local paper.
So, what I want to know is- does your area have a community paper (not a daily with wired in stuff)? What's in it? What do you like about it? What don't you like about it?
Thanks for your help!
Kim in NC |
| 10 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| sleepless reader |
Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 6:53:57 PM
Our local paper is pretty much fishwrap. Always has a few typos, too many articles re-printed from "free" services (I guess) that have little to nothing to do with our town and lots of real estate adds.They even started printing a horoscope!!! They do cover some local events; mostly high school sports, youth soccer, basketball and baseball/softball. Even though the adds are fully half the paper, I understand that they pay the bills. On occasion they will do a good job of covering a "real" issue of concern to the town, but that's pretty rare. I have found the best articles to be ones submitted by community members, not the news folks!
I'm sure they are doing their best, but it isn't enough to make me want a subscription. I usually read it at the library.
Good luck in your quest!
Sharon
Life is messy. Wear your apron! |
| brightmeadow |
Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 6:25:36 PM
We have a local "free" paper (is that called a "shopper"?) here that I can't wait to see, it comes out every two weeks. It usually has a page of school coverage of some type, a recipe page, news releases from the county extension office and soil conservation service, covers the farm auctions, and has a page of local news, usually covers a festival or local community event (fundraiser for the fire department, for example...) It doesn't have much hard news but I enjoy it because it is not gossipy but more of a "good news" kind of paper.
For some reason the recipes are really timely. I think they are the latest "hot" or popular things that people are bringing to family reunions and church potlucks.
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my blog at http://brightmeadowfarms.blogspot.com ,web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow |
| willowtreecreek |
Posted - Aug 16 2007 : 7:26:25 PM
Kim, let me clarify that despite the glaring errors and misquotations it was a "good" article that covered the topic it was intended to cover fairly well. I was glad to have the article but I just find it unbelievable when people clearly dont check and recheck their work before they publish it. The multiple spelling errors was the biggest issue to me. They were things that would have been picked up by spell check had it been used!
Felt and Fabric Crafts
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BLOG
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| Carolinagirl |
Posted - Aug 16 2007 : 5:36:57 PM
Kathy, I understand the slant you're talking about. It is so easy to get embroiled in the middle of some news. In my old hometown (SC), a second paper started up about 10 years ago, against the Gannett big boy daily. I like the daily there, but it doesn't have the space for lots of local things like you mentioned (sports, art club, old lady flower arranging class, pig show- I did cover those as a reporter), but the newer one does get that stuff in. It doesn't really have any of the negative things, like fights or wrecks or court news. It's fairly "nice" and positive in its stories (which vary from news to people to sports)but good writing and reporting. The only thing I don't like about it is that it is marketed strictly for the rich, white people in the county. It's even delivered free to those areas that advertisers think will have the expendable (sp) money to utilize. So, it doesn't cover the news and stuff from the poorer or less desireable parts of town, which is a shame.
Thanks for your ideas. It gels with my vision.
Kim :) |
| knewslady |
Posted - Aug 16 2007 : 5:29:24 PM
Hi Kim
I worked for our local newspaper for over 10 years but finally just got so burned out with it that I quit.
My advice would be to keep it as local as possible and if you can't write sports, then I would ask a high school kid if they would like to write some for you in order to get published. Little League baseball, basketball, anything that features kids' names always does well.
But then again, don't forget about those kids who are not sports oriented. I always thought it was a shame we didn't cover band events, art club, drama club the way we did sports. Our editor was a huge sports nut and it showed.
I am not big on court news, like district and circuit court news. Bad things happen to good people and those people don't need that type of coverage.
It is sad to say but controversy sells papers....if the city council is having a disagreement with the tree board, people want to read that.
I, personally, just like the human interest side of a newspaper. I truly believe every person has a story to tell and I think the story should be told. When I worked here for the newspaper that was what I wrote about, the little man with the tomato stand, the lady who collects dolls, the kid who wants to grow up and be a vet, never overlook anyone, they all have a story to tell.
That's just my slant. I wish you the best of luck. If I were younger I would really consider your dream working here, since our local newspaper leaves a lot to be desired. Be sure to keep us posted.
Kathy
Will always be a farmgirl at heart
Visit my online shop at http://thebackfence.etsy.com
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| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Aug 16 2007 : 5:17:22 PM
We have a local weekly paper here..comes out on Weds..and is 75 cents. Usually worth it, too.
There are never nation news stories in the paper..only things from our own county for the most part..lots of human interest, school news, local sports, big pullout things for things like the county fair, holidays and festivals that happen. ...I love it!
You should talk to BamaSuzy..she is a veteran reporter who has been editor on a new newspaper and knows how they got started..I bet she could be alot of help!!
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
| Carolinagirl |
Posted - Aug 16 2007 : 5:15:06 PM
Thanks for the responses so far, y'all. Cristine- we rarely used accident pictures on our paper (the one I worked at) because they seemed so crass. We did report of the accidents, however. Even after being in that business for a while, I still can't get used to seeing some of the things I do in print media (I remember seeing a suicide picture in TIME and thinking that they could have told that story just as effectively without the picture). Your man with the tomato is gone! :) We had lots of pictures like it, I imagine, and I would want to use those in my paper as well. Those are the things people are reading for in a community paper...
Shari- your DILs mom sounds exactly like what I want to print! Lots of local stuff- I wouldn't do anything outside of the area, since we have the daily one for that. We rarely used canned print, only the comics came from somewhere else. We had little old ladies that wrote community columns- I made fun of those until I realized that the readers were looking for them each week and got mad if they weren't in. We did local governments (that was my main beat- the county and four towns), schools, weddings, any social happenings, whatever was interesting in the county. If it wasn't happening in our county, it didn't make it in the paper unless we could tie it to the county somehow. I'd love to look at your DILs mom's paper. What's the name of it? Maybe I could get a copy from them. That helps a lot with the formulation of my own.
Julie- sucky reporting makes the whole paper look bad, huh? That's what I don't like about our daily. My husband has been misquoted in there so many times it's not funny. One reporter took my story and put her name on it, as if she wrote it. They don't cover much community-ish. But because it's all that's local, that's what people buy. It's sad. I'm sorry you didn't get any better a feeling from your article. I would feel horrible if a featured person I'd interviewed and wrote about didn't respond well to my story.
Kim
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| willowtreecreek |
Posted - Aug 16 2007 : 4:04:41 PM
When I was featured in the paper last month I was SHOCKED at all of the errors! I don't even think the writer ran spell check. The writer went to my online blog and took information from it and misquoted it and also used t out of context. She also made stuff up that I NEVER said yet put it in quotations like I had said it! It wasn't even accurate information. The question was regarding a possible air date for the TV show. I don't know the air date and my only guess is that she didn't like that answer cause she made up some whole big thing about how they schedule the show. My name was even spelled incorrectly several time throughout! When she called to tell me it was in the paper (I had already seen it) I didn't even answer cause I didn't want to have to tell the truth about what I thought. I have read a lot of articles I enjoy but now I really question the truth and validity of them!
Felt and Fabric Crafts
www.willowartist.etsy.com
www.willowtreecreek.com
BLOG
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| gateway girl |
Posted - Aug 16 2007 : 3:09:11 PM
Hi Kim, my DIL's Mom has published a free community paper in our area for years. She used to do door to door delivery but that got to be a liability. Some people complained that they didn't subscribe to the paper so they didn't want it delivered to their home, so now she puts stacks in convience stores, restaurants, grocery store entrances, and every business that buys ads in her paper. That's how she pays for the paper and makes a decent living, thru ads from local businesses. She's doing well enough now that she has 6 people working for her.
Things in her paper that I like..... She does stories about school news from every school, public or private, that is in our area. She reports any crimes that have been commited in the area, She attends or has someone attend every public meeting for city business and then reports what the city wants to do and what concerns were brought up by the people in the audience. This is especially helpful to me since I work second shift and can't go to the public meetings because they are all in the evenings. You can look in her paper and find out what sales are going on in the local stores, what movies are playing at the theatre, what concert is playing in the park, what craft fair is coming up or what is going on at any of the areas attractions. She has a classified ads section also listing jobs, things for sale, lost and found, garage sales. She charges people to run these small ads too, but a very nominal fee.
I love her paper. This is the news that really matters to me because these things impact my life daily. She also reports on the St. Louis news and the national news. Her paper is approximately 20-25 pages front and back, but the pages are only half as tall as the big conglomerate newspapers. This is to my liking also because it's easier to handle and even my kids would sit and read it. She had a kids section that had clean jokes and cartoons, seek and find and word jumbles for them to do. Local papers are the best!!
So I guess what I'm saying is if you have the desire, then do it! Your neighbors and community will love it! But remember that you will be a reporter which doesn't mean you put your slant on the news. You have to remain unbiased. If that is too hard to do you can always include a comments section to your paper and put your thoughts in anonymously. I believe that's what she does, because she is a very outspoken kind of person and I can't imagine she keeps quiet on some of what she reports about.
I hope this helps you get some ideas for your new venture if you decide to take the leap. Good Luck and let me know how it's coming along. If you have any questions about the over all business aspects I'm sure my DIL's mom could answer them for you. Just email me anytime!
Shari
Life is a chain of moments of enjoyment, it's not just about survival. Live every second to it's fullest!
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| MsCwick |
Posted - Aug 16 2007 : 2:43:06 PM
YES YES we have a few local ones here. The worst one is the Crewe-Burkeville Journal. The front page ALWAYS has an article about a fatal or nearly fatal car accident. ALWAYS.
Here's the link to the paper for my area. www.farmvilleherald.com It comes out on Tuesday and Friday, and there is the Free News which is just the classifieds and excerpts from the front page, that comes out on saturday.. The neatest thing is that this paper has been around for more than one hundred years, so in the Friday paper there is a page that is devoted to "One Hundred Years Ago Today" It's soooo cool. It talks about the wars, and the weather and farmers, and all kinds of neat stuff, the local college when it was women only, and wedding photos, and births from that long ago.
PS. Go to the social page and check out the guy at the bottom with the tomato!! How Cute?! |
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