“Is your newspaper boring as hell?” That's the question posed way back in 1994 by my old pen-pal Garrett Ray in his longtime "Editor's Notebook" column in Publishers' Auxiliary.
Garrett, who also taught journalism at the Colorado State University at Fort Collins, had a way of enticing editors to ask themselves the right questions. In this case, he had posed the "boring" question as part of his research on community papers in Great Britain. And, unfortunately, he got some of the same answers then that he would get from too many U.S. editors in 2007.
One editor who had spent much of his career on larger daily papers complained that his own community weekly is full of "the same meetings of the same organizations...for 100 years." Garrett described this particular editor as sounding "tired of life and work in his small, traditional community".
I'd go farther: This editor ought to go back to the big city papers from which he came....his attitude is elitist and he can't be doing a very inspired job of serving his community.
Did it ever occur to him that if people have been attending the same meetings for generations, there may be something important taking place at those meetings? Maybe if he bothered to figure out how an organization had managed to survive in a small town for 100 years, he'd learn something interesting. And if he put it in the paper, his paper would be less boring.
There aren't any boring communities. But there are plenty of boring newspapers. And every one of them is produced by a boring editor.
What is a community? It's people. People with hopes and fears. People who love and hate. People who struggle, fail and succeed. People who see a half empty glass and others who see the same glass half full. People who are learning and growing and others who are shrinking and dying. People working together to make their communities a better place to live and work, not always successfully. Boring? No way. Only a masterfully boring editor could make it so.
Another editor told Garrett Ray that "a paper full of photo line-ups is boring". Perhaps to that editor, but not to the people in the photos or to their family or friends. And not if the photographer uses imaginative poses and/or causes the people in the picture to show some personality.
This same editor also argues against "boring stories about the council and courts". But the council and courts deal with issues that really matter to the citizens of any community. Boring? No way. Only a masterfully boring reporter could make it so.
Garrett himself declared "the challenge...is how to capture the interest of growing numbers of mobile newcomers. They don't know the names in the paper; they don't work in town; they aren't joining local clubs and may never do so..." He admitted he doesn't have the answer.
Unfortunately, the answer too many boring editors arrive at is exactly the opposite of what they should do. They stop covering the "boring" news of the community. They try to "entertain" their readers instead of informing them. They ban the line-up photos of local residents doing things in the community and start substituting "artsy" and "action" pictures like the ones in the big city dailies.
In doing so, they become weak imitators of television entertainment. (Guess what: television is better at entertaining than we are; and entertainment isn’t our purpose!) And they become weak imitators of the big city generic newspapers. (Guess what: big newspapers and magazines are better at the generic stuff than we are.)
And they ignore what is the real strength of the community newspaper: coverage of local events and what local people think about the issues that are important to them.
The boring editors pass up the great opportunity to do something television and big papers can't do: make a real connection to people. Most community papers have followed the lead of the big dailies in homogenizing the opinion pages. They emphasize the newspaper's own editorials (most of which are truly boring!). They screen out offbeat opinions (somebody powerful may be offended). They insist that letters be signed (which in many small towns is the surest way to stifle a vigorous exchange). And they insist that opinions be written (banning the emails and online postings which for many of today's busy citizens is their primary and most comfortable way of communicating).
How to interest the mobile newcomers Garrett Ray worried about, who haven't yet sunk roots in the community, and who won't know the names in the paper?
How about starting by putting their names in the paper, telling why they moved to the community and what sort of life they hope to live there? And by telling them about what organizations are active in town and how they can become involved? And by telling them the problems the community is struggling with, and the progress it is making? And by inviting their involvement in a vigorous community forum taking place in every issue on the opinion page?
Will it win over every potential reader? No. Our society is in a narcissistic phase. There are alarming numbers of people who care only about themselves, and who are willing to delegate their needs to professional politicians and bureaucrats. Such people are unlikely to spend much time reading a newspaper that focuses on community issues. They are too busy seeking self-gratification.
But there are still lots of people out there who care, and a disproportionate number of them are found in small communities. Community newspapers must make it easy for people to get involved in their communities. We need to seek out those who are and publicize their efforts. We need to give people the information they need to participate fully in their community. We need to provide a forum for thoughtful discussion by citizens who care about public issues.
A free society cannot survive without citizens who care. They have to care enough to stay informed and get involved. At a time when the number of such citizens may be declining, newspapers must not abandon them.
Our society doesn't need more supplies of entertainment. It doesn't need more providers of self-indulgence. What we need is more sense of community. More caring. More understanding. More participation.
Our community newspapers and newszap.com community websites are ideally suited to serve those needs. Nobody can do it as well. And it's an exciting challenge. Newspapers that tackle the challenge are exciting, never boring.
(Joe Smyth is the CEO of Independent. This is an adaptation and update of an earlier column by Joe that first appeared in Press Lines in 1994. He’d like to hear whether you think it is still relevant. He can be reached by email at JoeSmyth@aol.com.)
