Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
MPA President's column

Do I hear bells? Why, yes you do

Posted

If you have the opportunity to visit Leader World Headquarters in Festus, be sure to ask someone, “What’s the deal with the bells?”

We’d love to demonstrate the power of a little positivity.

Here at the Leader, each of the three people who most often answer phones has a bell on her desk. These old-school, hit-the-button-on-top-type bells are nothing special to look at, but when Patty, Annika or Kimberly – the Leader’s frontline staff members – rings a bell, the entire office takes notice.

That is the goal.

Individually, Leader staffers know our work is important. Local journalism is vital to community success. Our readers need to know the good and the bad about what’s happening, and it’s our job to tell these stories.

Reporters ask tough questions. They shed light, uncover the truth and share the news. Not everyone is delighted when some facts come to light and are printed in our newspapers. Some days, it seems no one is happy. It can feel like we live in a negative world.

But our front-office staff knows that isn’t true. They answer the incoming onslaught of calls and hear from readers who are thankful, pleased, happy and grateful for the work we do. Readers often end their calls with “I love the Leader.”

It happens more often than you might think. People recognize and appreciate the hard work required to produce quality local journalism.

They call to tell us that the story about a grandchild’s sports accomplishment drew lots of attention at Sunday church. They let us know the fundraiser we helped promote worked and generated money for a community cause. They learned about a new business opening. A new business owner saw results from their Leader advertising.

When readers call to renew their subscriptions, they often mention how much they look forward to Thursdays, the day their Leader shows up in the mailbox. Readers tell us the Leader provides a connection to others, and sometimes a direct link improves life. That’s important work, folks.

Our team does their best to share the positive messages with all our staff. But we are busy people at Leader World Headquarters, and we don’t feel we have the time to stop everything and share a quick thank you with the whole office each time we get a compliment. So, we put our heads together and came up with a way to share those good vibes with the whole Leader team while not disrupting the flow too much.

The answer was bells. Anytime any of us get a compliment or a thank you for the work we do, we ring a bell. It’s a quick, unobtrusive message for the whole team that someone somewhere, at least in that moment in time, is happy with the work we do.

It’s been months since the bells started to ring. At first, there was an attitude that the bell ringing really wasn’t necessary. Newspaper folk often cultivate a persona that’s a bit crusty, even cranky. We can be curmudgeons. We are skeptics, trained to question everything, to dig through the fluff to find the facts. But we do appreciate kind words and recognition for work well done.

The bells won them over, and now Leader staffers throughout the building periodically holler out, “Ring the bell.” That means someone offered a compliment, appreciated a story, noticed the work the Leader does.

For fans of the Christmas classic movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” you know every time a bell rings, an angel gets their wings. It’s almost the same here. Every time a bell rings at Leader World Headquarters, it’s a promise we make to ourselves and our community to be bolder and better because they deserve it.