TODAY'S LETTERS: NIU Shooting, Small Paper Success, The 'Albuquerque Tribune'

By: E&P Staff Readers wrote in today about the media at the Northwest Illinois University shooting, smaller newspapers doing well and closing of The Albuquerque Tribune.

PAULINE'S PICKS: 'The Northwest Herald' Covers NIU Shooting
You were spot on with your observation about the invasiveness of the national media.

One shining example was one friend of the shooting victim that came to mourn at the crosses and was sobbing through trying to tell a camera about her friend. Before you know it, 15 cameras are on top of this girl while she is curled up in the snow crying. A few minutes later a Spanish news channel asks for an interview with the girl, then requests for her to describe what she just said in Spanish and English, ridiculous.

I was at the scene about 45 minutes after the shootings. As a local paper that covers Dekalb on a regular basis, I'm respectful when it comes to who wants/does not want to talk because I will have to cover those people again.

I will be the one in a month and even a year after getting the follow-up after the national media is long gone. I just hope that some people don't give all of us a bad name.

Danielle Guerra
Videographer- Interactive Media
Northwest News Group


Videographer Danielle Guerra and I went out of our way to find students well away from the places where the rest of the press were congregating so that we could sensitively talk to them without being elbowed out of the way by reporters parachuted into DeKalb who would not have to stick around to face the music for their conduct. It was not easy.

I had attended Northern, and understood that sticking tape recorders up mourners' noses wasn't the best way to go about doing things. Also, I had stopped by the student newspaper where I got my start just as the faculty advisers discovered that one of their own was among the dead.

Danielle and I latched onto a group of eight students making their way to a makeshift memorial - five crosses on MLK Commons - to pay their respects. They were practically mobbed once they got there - having walked with them, it was right out of Charge of the Light Brigade.

Fortunately, there were some bright spots. Some of the older reporters were quite polite and understood what the kids were going through.

Maybe this kind of stuff is why smaller papers seem to be weathering the storm of cutbacks and layoffs in American journalism. We handle these tragedies with a lot more tact, because we live and work among our readers and have to face the consequences of any unethical or improper action.

Kevin Craver

'86' for 'Albuquerque Tribune' -- To Close On Saturday
It's a helluva thing when Editor & Publisher's Web site uses "86," a restaurant term, to describe the end of a newspaper. Don't you folks know --30-- any more?

Peter Mattiace

Small Towns, Big Profits
Kudos to Mark Fitzgerald and Jennifer Saba for their story "Small towns, big profits." As publisher of a group of community newspapers, I have been concerned for quite some time about the flood of bad news painting a bleak picture of the newspaper industry. Our advertising reps constantly battle the perception that newspapers represent relics of bygone generations.

In reality, our weekly newspapers do quite well. In fact, we recently started a new paper and its has received a fantastic reception from readers and advertisers. In addition, we are so bullish on newspapers that we invested in a new printing press.

Your reporters hit the nail on the head. Small papers that concentrate on providing news of relevance to the community can flourish and prosper if they can connect at a personal level to the readers. This good news about the newspaper industry merits bigger headlines.

I understand newspapers face many challenges, not the least being the internet. Nevertheless, newspapers possess a valuable franchise that others can only envy. The article in E&P provides a blueprint for publishers and editors to follow to increase readership, advertising and profits.

Let's not write the obit for newspapers prematurely. As Mark Twain might say, the news of our death is greatly exaggerated.

Thank you for accentuating the positive!

Steve Robertson
Publisher