My Recipe for Newspaper Success: Investigative Stories and Good News Stories

By: John L. Robinson | Media Disrupted

I’ve looked at the front pages of newspapers big and small around North Carolina for a few years now and, I’ve come to a few conclusions.

For anyone interested in news—even only with a nodding acquaintance with it on a daily basis—much of what is in the paper is actually “olds,” to steal someone else’s term.   (And by nodding acquaintance, I mean someone who catches the headlines on TV or the radio or social media. If you’re not in that category, you probably don’t take the newspaper anyway.) Much of what is on the front page isn’t new news. It could be new information, but it’s often not news in the old-fashioned sense of “this-just-happened-and-it’s-important. For instance, the top story today in Greensboro is an interview with Rep. Howard Coble, who announced his retirement on Thursday. In Winston, it’s a follow-up on student test scores, released on Thursday. In High Point, it’s a salute to a veteran.