By Kay S. Pedrotti
All predictions about the death of newspapers in this country are greatly exaggerated.
Okay, so the Journal Reporter has some online news. But folks, if and when the grid fails, nobody will be able to go online or watch television or call somebody to find out what’s going on. We will all depend on whoever can write down and distribute our news. My belief is that Walter and Laura Geiger will lead that effort, at least in this area. They already are newspaper leaders.
Kay S. Pedrotti
Local papers here for you - for good
In a place where we are barely noticed by Macon and completely ignored by Atlanta -- at least in the media -- it’s great to be a part of a newspaper that people say still has some substance.
One of my fellow church members tells me, “I take the Griffin paper, but I still don’t know what’s going on.” Others who manage somehow to find copies of the Atlanta paper, since we no longer have home subscriptions nor even store boxes, say that organ is largely dedicated to the rich, the famous and the scandalous.
The last time the Journal Reporter’s sister newspaper the Herald Gazette saw television antenna trucks here was last April’s tornado. You could count their coverage in minutes, but you could count ours in days and nights of work. What we did was good enough for the “grand old man” of Georgia newspapers, Elliott Brack, to enter us into consideration for a Pulitzer Prize nomination for local coverage of a disaster. If it’s a slow news day, we might occasionally get outside coverage on local events.
I may not always agree with my bosses’ editorial decisions but they give me the freedom to talk about most anything, and I respect them. Take a good look at any given issue of the Herald Gazette or the Pike County Journal Reporter.
You’ll find extensive reporting on what your local governments are doing; lots of school news not just about sports; interesting features on local people, events or locations; columns by everybody from preachers to politicians to local folks speaking folksy news; reminders about voting, elections, tax deadlines and changes in local ordinances and regulations; what’s going on in the court system; opportunities to enjoy the fine arts in the area, and much more.
We do have our critics but that means people are reading and caring about what goes on. If we are wrong, we correct what we said. If we are right in spite of criticism, we try to tell people why it’s how it is and how we got the information. We’d rather see our work read by the subjects or authorities before it is printed if there are possibilities for factual inaccuracies.
Love us or not, we are dedicated to these communities and to reporting whatever outside factors affect them. Don’t lump us in with NPR or Fox News or American Idol -- we are not “the media,” we are your media. That will always mean something, grid or no grid.
One of my fellow church members tells me, “I take the Griffin paper, but I still don’t know what’s going on.” Others who manage somehow to find copies of the Atlanta paper, since we no longer have home subscriptions nor even store boxes, say that organ is largely dedicated to the rich, the famous and the scandalous.
The last time the Journal Reporter’s sister newspaper the Herald Gazette saw television antenna trucks here was last April’s tornado. You could count their coverage in minutes, but you could count ours in days and nights of work. What we did was good enough for the “grand old man” of Georgia newspapers, Elliott Brack, to enter us into consideration for a Pulitzer Prize nomination for local coverage of a disaster. If it’s a slow news day, we might occasionally get outside coverage on local events.
I may not always agree with my bosses’ editorial decisions but they give me the freedom to talk about most anything, and I respect them. Take a good look at any given issue of the Herald Gazette or the Pike County Journal Reporter.
You’ll find extensive reporting on what your local governments are doing; lots of school news not just about sports; interesting features on local people, events or locations; columns by everybody from preachers to politicians to local folks speaking folksy news; reminders about voting, elections, tax deadlines and changes in local ordinances and regulations; what’s going on in the court system; opportunities to enjoy the fine arts in the area, and much more.
We do have our critics but that means people are reading and caring about what goes on. If we are wrong, we correct what we said. If we are right in spite of criticism, we try to tell people why it’s how it is and how we got the information. We’d rather see our work read by the subjects or authorities before it is printed if there are possibilities for factual inaccuracies.
Love us or not, we are dedicated to these communities and to reporting whatever outside factors affect them. Don’t lump us in with NPR or Fox News or American Idol -- we are not “the media,” we are your media. That will always mean something, grid or no grid.
Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks
