Critical Thinking: Strategies for a Stronger Local News Appeal
Posted: 8/26/2011 | By: Heidi Kulicke
Q:What are some strategies newspapers can implement to bring a stronger local news appeal to all demographics?
Rachel G. Bowers, 21, senior at Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
Entering her final semester this fall at the University of Georgia, Bowers is editor-in-chief of The Red & Black, an independent student newspaper serving the university community. Upon graduation in December, the Athens, Ga., native hopes to design and write features for a publication in a metropolitan market.
A: The first priority of a local newspaper is to know the readership, regardless of the various demographics in the market. The relationship between a local newspaper and its readership is key for the newspaper to be effective, relevant, and respected in the community.
After getting to know its readership, the newspaper and its reporters must find a balance between delivering news readers want and delivering news readers need to make educated decisions in the community. But providing the information that readers need isn’t enough. The newspaper also needs to provide news analysis — explain what the news means and how it will affect readers.
A local newspaper also must find the ability to take national and sometimes international topics, and find the local angle so its readers can take interest in pertinent and developing stories. National events are more easily digested if brought to a local level rather than left as ambiguous story lines that are hard to relate to. Readers are more likely to glaze over coverage of the 2012 campaigns and the war in Iraq if a local angle is not provided. Small towns are far removed from those events, and citizens are too worried about the struggles of daily life to read news stories that may not directly affect their lives unless it is explained how those events are important to their lives and their communities.
It is the responsibility of local news outlets to make local news, as well as national and international news, relevant. A local newspaper needs to connect with the citizens in its community to be a part of readers’ everyday lives.
Michael Kilian 48, associate editor, Burlington (Vt.) Free Press
Kilian oversees the local news report online and in print, putting particular emphasis on promoting accountability in journalism, solid narratives, and passionate coverage of subjects such as arts and culture and the environment. Previously, he held editing positions at newspapers in Utica, Saratoga Springs, and Troy, N.Y.
A: The key word is “appeal.” Newspapers must shed rote reliance on commodity news and instead do what we can do better than anyone else: tell stories that matter to our readers.
When we hold public officials accountable through exhaustive use of records and incisive interviews, that’s appealing. When we write with authority and insight about topics that core groups of readers are passionate about, that’s appealing. And when we invest time and energy to write in a narrative style on a topic with depth, that’s appealing.
How do we do that? We need to dump minor crime briefs from our websites and stenography-style reporting from our newspapers. Eliminate the clutter, lose the widget-factory mentality, and free up our reporters and editors to produce more accountability journalism and deep, rich reads. Let the more sophisticated work squeeze out the dull.
In Burlington, that means an unrelenting push for more open government and creation of weekly sections on the environment, arts/culture, and the locavore lifestyle. Recently, we’ve written exhaustively about individual public embezzlement cases. We’ve battled obstacles to tell how the members of a town’s Selectboard sexually harassed a female town administrator. Our environmental reporter wrote a first-person piece about her trek with wildlife biologists in search of Vermont’s declining rattlesnake population. And a features reporter just turned in a magazine-style article about the life of a veteran essayist before he became famous; this article is one wild ride for readers.
Guess what? People are reading these pieces. The stories are driving online numbers way up and are growing our engagement with readers on social media. Our work is leading to needed changes in our communities and in the law. Maybe best of all, our reporters and editors are highly motivated. Our work needs to appeal more to us, too.
Rachel G. Bowers, 21, senior at Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
Entering her final semester this fall at the University of Georgia, Bowers is editor-in-chief of The Red & Black, an independent student newspaper serving the university community. Upon graduation in December, the Athens, Ga., native hopes to design and write features for a publication in a metropolitan market.
A: The first priority of a local newspaper is to know the readership, regardless of the various demographics in the market. The relationship between a local newspaper and its readership is key for the newspaper to be effective, relevant, and respected in the community.
After getting to know its readership, the newspaper and its reporters must find a balance between delivering news readers want and delivering news readers need to make educated decisions in the community. But providing the information that readers need isn’t enough. The newspaper also needs to provide news analysis — explain what the news means and how it will affect readers.
A local newspaper also must find the ability to take national and sometimes international topics, and find the local angle so its readers can take interest in pertinent and developing stories. National events are more easily digested if brought to a local level rather than left as ambiguous story lines that are hard to relate to. Readers are more likely to glaze over coverage of the 2012 campaigns and the war in Iraq if a local angle is not provided. Small towns are far removed from those events, and citizens are too worried about the struggles of daily life to read news stories that may not directly affect their lives unless it is explained how those events are important to their lives and their communities.
It is the responsibility of local news outlets to make local news, as well as national and international news, relevant. A local newspaper needs to connect with the citizens in its community to be a part of readers’ everyday lives.
Michael Kilian 48, associate editor, Burlington (Vt.) Free Press
Kilian oversees the local news report online and in print, putting particular emphasis on promoting accountability in journalism, solid narratives, and passionate coverage of subjects such as arts and culture and the environment. Previously, he held editing positions at newspapers in Utica, Saratoga Springs, and Troy, N.Y.
A: The key word is “appeal.” Newspapers must shed rote reliance on commodity news and instead do what we can do better than anyone else: tell stories that matter to our readers.
When we hold public officials accountable through exhaustive use of records and incisive interviews, that’s appealing. When we write with authority and insight about topics that core groups of readers are passionate about, that’s appealing. And when we invest time and energy to write in a narrative style on a topic with depth, that’s appealing.
How do we do that? We need to dump minor crime briefs from our websites and stenography-style reporting from our newspapers. Eliminate the clutter, lose the widget-factory mentality, and free up our reporters and editors to produce more accountability journalism and deep, rich reads. Let the more sophisticated work squeeze out the dull.
In Burlington, that means an unrelenting push for more open government and creation of weekly sections on the environment, arts/culture, and the locavore lifestyle. Recently, we’ve written exhaustively about individual public embezzlement cases. We’ve battled obstacles to tell how the members of a town’s Selectboard sexually harassed a female town administrator. Our environmental reporter wrote a first-person piece about her trek with wildlife biologists in search of Vermont’s declining rattlesnake population. And a features reporter just turned in a magazine-style article about the life of a veteran essayist before he became famous; this article is one wild ride for readers.
Guess what? People are reading these pieces. The stories are driving online numbers way up and are growing our engagement with readers on social media. Our work is leading to needed changes in our communities and in the law. Maybe best of all, our reporters and editors are highly motivated. Our work needs to appeal more to us, too.