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 March 2, 2007.
The greatest challenge of working at a newspaper is that you have thousands and thousands of bosses. Each reader has their own idea of what the newspaper should be and how we should prioritize our newsroom resources. We received a question this week from a reader who wanted to know why we took the time to write Wednesday's feature about community rec's open gym dodgeball. The reader didn't see any value in that story. But his statement isn't unique; we receive questions about the content we choose all the time from people who see something in the paper that they don't enjoy or that they think was unimportant. And then we hear about it. However, what those readers forget is that we have thousands more like them, that don't have the same concerns they'd like to read about. And, therefore, we go to a lot of effort to balance in a lot of ways the content we publish in the newspaper. The dodgeball story was a feature story about a trend that is taking place in our community. Now some, like this week's reader who commented, may not find value in reading about that. However, others do. Others may completely disagree with the reader who doesn't want to see the dodgeball-like features in our newspaper. For instance some readers tell us they've read enough about the city council, the school board, the county board, etc. They couldn't care less about the political issues of the day; they want us to tell more "human interest" stories, as they often call them. And so, twice per week, we make choices to cover the news that has to be told to the public, such as city council or school board news, because that is our duty, and also to cover feature stories about the people and the events that make Northfield a great place to call home. But our decisions don't end there. Not only do we have to decide which type of news we turn our reporters lose on, we have to make decisions as to how we allocate the space throughout the remainder of the paper, too. For instance, how much space should we give to sports in each edition? Some readers couldn't care less if we covered sports at all, and for other readers, it's the first thing they turn to when they pick up the paper. And then there other elements of the paper: How much space should we give to opinions and commentary? How about public records, such as the police and sheriff reports, marriages, obituaries, engagements, etc.? Again, some would say those facets of the paper are the most important to include. Others react with a yawn. We know that each reader wants their Northfield News to be something different, and so that is why we strive for variety. We cover the local government news, which we consider giving readers their broccoli, which is good for them, and then we sprinkle in interesting features, opinion material, sports, advertising, records and historical information, which we consider the many desserts from which readers can choose. We don't expect each reader to read everything, but we do strive to include something every reader wants. That's our challenge each week. - Managing Editor Devlyn Brooks can be reached at dbrooks@northfieldnews.com.
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