Carol Stark: Taking the newsroom to its readers

September 05, 2008 09:52 am

— I’ve always thought that the newspaper industry went awry some 25 years or so ago when it decided to remake itself without bothering to talk to its readers.
Those were the years of the 240-inch, magazine-style narratives which were called “investigations,” but, in so many cases, really weren’t.
That’s when we in this industry decided we were too good to put Aunt Edna’s family reunion or Uncle Joe’s hole-in-one on our pristine pages. No, we knew what was news and the reader, because after all, he or she was just the reader, knew nothing.
The industry collectively lost a lot of readers before it finally figured out that people are interested in a variety of issues and what their neighbor — and their neighbor’s dog — is doing are among those.
But, before we had much time to pull our heads out, along came the Internet and the age of 24/7 news. Our role has changed from newspaper to news source, and we’re all scrambling to figure out what you want from us.
Readers, I have found, like to read about crime, heroes, those who overcome obstacles, how much their taxes are going up, who’s teaching and coaching their kids and, of course, who’s going to be their next president. But, you may be one of those readers who doesn’t care about any of those things. I need to meet you.
A year and a half ago, I promised Globe readers that I would make myself accessible. Now, I’d like to take that another step and make myself and members of my staff even easier to talk with.
We’ll come to you.
The experiment begins on Wednesday. From 9 to 10:30 a.m., drop by Columbia Traders in downtown Joplin and have a cup of coffee with Andy Ostmeyer, metro editor; Melissa Dunson, education reporter; Debby Woodin, Joplin city hall reporter; and me. I’ll be the one buying the coffee.
We have no agenda other than to find out what you want to read about in your paper. Or maybe you or someone you know has a great story. We’d like to hear it. One thing I know is great stories rarely happen inside newsrooms, and it’s incumbent that editors — especially editors — take a walk outside now and then.
We’ll also schedule an evening meeting in Joplin sometime before the month is over, and I’ll let you know the when and where. I’d love to hear from some students and teachers during the evening session. We’re even thinking about spending an hour on the trolley.
Because we know that gas is costly, we’ll be traveling around the area. Again, I’ll let you know in advance where we’ll be and who we’ll be bringing along on the trip.
Please join us. We’ll be listening.

Carol Stark is editor of The Joplin Globe. Address correspondence to her, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, Mo. 64802 or e-mail cstark@joplinglobe.com.