It’s Only News When Readers Believe It Is

Each day as managing editor of the Herald offers a challenge. That’s good, because it keeps me — and us — on our toes, lets me exercise judgment and allows me to know what readers are thinking and feeling.
One lesson I have learned over the weeks and years in this community newspaper is how vastly different everyone views certain news items. What I may think is of narrow interest, can be a barnstormer to the general public. On the other hand, what I may judge as important news does not register as a “blip” on readers’ mental radar screens.
Editing Spout Off is a lesson in life as well as in journalism. Although most anonymous Spout Off submitters will never talk to me on the phone, they seem to enjoy bantering about why we don’t print every submission.
Frankly, we would spend more time in court, not reporting the news, if we printed each one. It has nothing to do with First Amendment rights of those who put them in, many are simply libelous, and for that reason repose in our growing “no“ file.
If politicians loathe Spout Off the way we print it, they would go absolutely bonkers if we printed each and every one. Lawyers would fill our lobby, subpoenas in hand. Why don’t we print every Spout? That’s why.
We can tell by the tone of Spout Offs that many have no idea how governments operate. Why, they write, cannot their elected officials understand their rejection of a school budget means no? They do not realize the fine points that municipal officials must follow after voters reject the budget.
While some attend their municipal meetings, and voice concerns there, most seemingly rely on Spout Off to relay their sentiments to elected officials. That is one of the good points of the multi-page, exceedingly popular column. It allows officials to hear what the populous is feeling regardless of whether they like it.
Criticized for not printing every single Spout Off, let’s face it, how many times must we pound a dead horse? The mayor’s a schmuck; let’s throw the bum out. If that is your feeling, write it once, but please, don’t insult us by sending in five or six submissions saying the same thing within two minutes. When we see that type of back-to-back entries, we let a few go, but “kill” the rest.
We use smaller print for Spout Offs, and have also been criticized for that. As it is, Spout Off takes up about four pages a week, if the size of type was increased, it would be half again as large, and there would be little room for other important local news.
Schools are important places. That is why we offer a special part in each edition to chronicle the events of local districts. We lack manpower to visit each school, and for that reason, rely solely upon the parents and teachers and administrators to send in photos and stories about happenings.
They are the domain of Jen Campbell, my daughter in law, and her email address for those types of news is: jcampbell@cmcherald.com. We try as best we can to print here what space allows, and put everything on our website, www.capemaycountyherald. com.
Contrary to belief of some readers, we do not dream up stories, nor do we conjure facts out of thin air. If police issue a crime report, and we print it, we know that, under our legal system, the accused remains innocent until proven guilty by a judge. Often, family members think we are targeting them. Not so.
Where do we get the information? From the law enforcement agencies, that’s where. Who could dream up some of the crimes reported here?
Because of our limited staff, we cannot follow cases through the courts. If someone who is arrested is subsequently found not guilty, we would appreciate hearing about it. If an attorney could call us, it would be appreciated. We cannot take a family member’s word alone thaT an accused person was found not guilty.
The court or an attorney must verify such reports.
Increasingly, we are relying on readers to submit photographs and stories directly to us. In the future, that will become more important to you and us. Our staff is small, and there are far more of you than there are of us.
Virtually everyone nowadays possesses a digital camera or cell phone capable of snapping an accident or fire. We open our pages to those reader photos, and give credit to the photographers. I would like to see more of this with each issue.
That way, “your” newspaper is printing “your” news that you sent to us. Who better to report that type of news than you?
Come to think of it, would our readers want it any other way?
Through your help and tips, we have become Cape May County’s leading source of breaking news. Each day, readers tell us that they come to rely on us as soon as they hear a fire siren or see a serious accident.
That can only happen through partnership with our community.
As long as you value news, and rely upon us, we will continue to do our level best to serve you in print and online, and with text messages to your cell phones for breaking news.
We cannot do it alone the job is too big. Together we can deliver the news you want in the form you desire. This is the reality of community journalism in Cape May County in 2010.