Northfield News column: Tragic stories seem more tragic now

EDITOR'S NOTE: In June 2004 I began a new venture as managing editor of both Northfield News and Faribault Daily News. This column originally appeared in the Northfield News on Dec. 26, 2006.

Once you've lived through several of the Christmas-to-New Year's news cycles, you come to enjoy the time period for what it means to newspapers. As one can imagine, just as the rest of the world slows down to focus on the holidays, the news cycle also slows down. I've come to enjoy the time each year because it usually means the newsroom is writing heart-warming feature stories, the good Samaritan who helps out someone less fortunate, the time many volunteers give to Christmas community dinners or to toys collecting or some other favorite charity. And the need to cover the "hard news" stories, as we call them, lessens. For reporters who are used to covering a smattering of stories, some with happy endings and many without, the time around the holidays generally means a few more up-beat stories than usual, a chance to put the grim face away and enjoy the job a little more. However, it also seems that despite the fact that we as journalists deal with tragic news 52 weeks a year, it never seems as poignant as it does during this one week of the year. I've worked many a holiday shift this time of year and have had to cover tragedies on the individual scale and on a large scale. They're not fun to write any time of year, but just as everyone feels grief multiplied during the holidays, so do reporters who cover the tragic events happening around them. What prompted all of these thoughts was the fire at the pig barn southeast of town last week. As soon as the news started spreading through the newsroom, I could see the look on the reporters' faces as they discussed it. They all knew someone was going to have to write the story, but yet no one comes to work prepared for such an event, much less during the days leading up to Christmas. I don't mean to demean the loss the operators of the pig barn must feel because we surely aren't in their shoes. I mean only that for some inexplicable reason, the bad news we cover on a regular basis the rest of the year, seems so much more tragic now. Many have heard me say that most reporters don't get into the business to write about the bad things that happen. It's quite the contrary actually. We just accept that it's a downside to the job and we go about doing it. However, I have to say that if we could give it up for one week, this would be the one. - Devlyn Brooks is the managing editor of the Northfield News. He can be reached at dbrooks@northfieldnews.com.