- 2023: Ride my see-saw (12/30/23)2
- Five years on: When does it all become ‘enough?’ (6/23/23)3
- 2022: Things fall apart, but they can be rebuilt (12/29/22)1
- Getting at it fundamental to what we do (9/23/22)1
- Getting the hang of a Model T (9/8/22)
- Price: Community buy-in critical for volunteer firefighters (8/30/22)
- If I can be a little more like Ernie Pyle (8/16/22)2
Feeling stronger every day
Even though Eric is still gone from the office, I think Jared and I, and the rest of the newsroom, have done our best to maintain a sense of regularity in his absence.
It has helped that Joe Fields has been stringing for us with his feature stories. Design-wise, his contributions have indeed helped to fill space in the paper. However, I hope he feels he's been getting good experience interacting with others in the community.
There is an ebb and flow in the day-to-day, because anything can happen. Jared, being the consummate professional that he is, has led us through these difficulties, and we've kept afloat because of how we communicate, and because we trust each other. We've had to figure out how to adapt and manage, and to be more disciplined.
We can only get better in practice as reporters, and I think the newspaper as a whole can be more active with its resources to better serve this community. It's necessary to have the optimism that we can continue to improve and move forward as a team.
Last Wednesday, I attended the 2019 News Media Workshop at the University of Indianapolis. Though I didn't get much practical advice to improve my chops as a reporter, much of it was constructively focused on how news outlets, from the traditional papers to the broadcasters, could use social media to their advantage.
Reaching out to our subscribers and getting more "clicks" through the Facebook page is how we stay relevant where it matters to many. Online, especially recently, has become more prevalent for us, PR-wise and business-wise. Subscriptions in general have been increasing, and that tells me more people are seeing the worth of investing in their local paper to stay informed. But I think there is much more room for growth.
The theme I took from the workshop was the importance of continual engagement, and how means like Facebook Live and Twitter can allow us to stay up-to-date and get information out more directly. Using these tools should be geared as supplements to, and not replacements of, our print basis, and to better enhance our online presence.
These are conversations I look forward to having here soon between Jared, Eric and I, but we need to take baby steps at this juncture. At the end of the day, people still should want the satisfaction of holding that paper in their hands in the morning.
The point is that we can get stronger mentally and strategically in the newsroom, as professionals and as people. What I value about being here at the Banner Graphic is that it's not about the business in and of itself. It's about telling people's stories.
We're all hoping that Eric is feeling stronger every day, and we're eager for our editor-in-chief to get back to his corner desk soon to continue doing what he does best.
With that, I'll leave you with this one by Chicago to brighten your day:
- -- Posted by beg on Fri, Jun 28, 2019, at 12:56 PM
Posting a comment requires free registration:
- If you already have an account, follow this link to login
- Otherwise, follow this link to register