Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
While I have written columns for Trout Talk and Fall Home and Garden, I believe this is my first column that the paper is publishing in a regular issue. I’d like to take the opportunity to talk about reader engagement with the newspaper.
For those unfamiliar, a column is where a newspaper writer includes more of themselves and their opinions in their writing as opposed to a hard news article with just the facts. In this column, I use “reader” to describe our audience, whether that be passers-by on social media or our subscribers.
I chose the topic of reader engagement for this column in part because it has been a long-standing goal of mine to increase reader engagement and because we have had quite a lot of it last week with our golf course coverage.
Beyond seeing our social media metrics improve, better reader engagement means that more people involve themselves in the conversations that our newspaper either creates or facilitates. Reporters like me want to see their stories make an impact for the better.
“Impact” might be an ambiguous term when it comes to writing about a controversial subject like the Lebanon City Council’s vote to approve the real estate contract purchasing the Lebanon Area Community Golf Course last week.
In that case – and here I am speaking only from my coverage – the impact I wanted to have was to make people aware of the City Council’s deliberation and decision so that they could become involved in the conversation if they wished and take more agency in the goings on of local government.
Before becoming a reporter and even after, I have found it hard not to disengage completely from what seems like the daily onslaught of news stories. So much it seems stressful, and it is easy to ignore when we all have so much else going on in our lives.
If we do disengage from the news, though, we begin to isolate ourselves from our communities and neighbors and hand over parts of our agency, leaving the decision making to those that involve themselves more than we do.
In a time where people find more of their time divided and pulled in different directions, the newspaper and other trustworthy news sources are more important than ever to ensure that our community knows itself.
There are public meetings I attend where I am the only audience member. I am in the fortunate position of being able to attend these meetings when others cannot because it, and the duty to ask questions in the public’s interest, is an obligation that comes with my job.
That said, my time as a reporter is limited. We choose our stories and prioritize our coverage as best we can. What makes that easier is when readers tell me what they want and do not want to see in the paper and what they like and do not like about our stories.
As a journalist, I also try to get what I write right the first time. But if I get it wrong, I would rather someone call me out on it the day of rather than find out about it a month later. That is another crucial part of having a local newspaper: local accountability.
The newspaper may be the first draft of history, as the saying goes, but it is far from a dead thing to simply glance at in its newsstand and move on. It is an evolving conversation between the past and the present, informed by the community it serves.
I was happy to see the discussions that our coverage last week sparked, and I hope the newspaper can continue to foster space for the community to learn about itself.
