There's no real secret or intense science to how newspapers or news organizations decide what to cover as a story.
It starts with judgment, and it's based on experience and actually a little bit of science.
The science comes from knowing something about our readers.
We had a readership survey done a couple of years ago that asked readers dozens of questions about what they would like to see covered but also more generally what their information needs are, and of course, what influences their decision to read and buy a newspaper or subscribe to news online.
But we also try to ask ourselves every day: How does this story impact our readers? Will this affect their finances, their health, their safety? Will this story affect how they think about their community or cause them to take some action? Even better.
And this is not a one or two person decision. Every reporter - and The Free Press has roughly a dozen including sports - is supposed to ask themselves this question when they tell their editors what story or stories they'll be covering.
Experience plays a role. Many of us have worked at The Free Press for several years, so we're aware of the kind of stories that get reader reaction, positive or negative. Anything with pets always strikes a chord.
On the demographic side, we know we have a lot of readers over 60 or 65. So clearly stories about things like Medicare and Social Security are likely to be read.
We know we have more baby boomer readers than 20 somethings, so covering music of the baby boom is likely to garner more interest than the latest garage band.
Businesses and other organizations often misunderstand a news organization's coverage decisions. They may have a new product or new service and wonder why that isn't always top of the page news. Well, it is when it's a product like cable TV, something that affects almost everyone.
It isn't such a big story, when say it's a new technology that helps farmers find yield per acre. While that may be somewhat interesting to farmers, it probably isn't as interesting to the general audience of a newspaper.
If you're wondering why your event didn't get covered, ask yourself: Who would be interested in this event? Who is the audience? News organizations avoid covering things that are special and narrow interests simply because they don't appeal to the broad audience we are trying to build.
News organizations have to focus on serving and building a fairly specific audience. That doesn't mean we pander to every weird interest that audience may have. At some point, news organizations can try to build interest in a topic that the audience may know nothing about.
That's also part of our role. It may be something that will improve the community or right a wrong.
In the end, we have to focus on what will impact our readers and help them sort through the increasingly complex world as they travel down the information highway.
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"We know we have more baby boomer readers than 20 somethings, so covering music of the baby boom is likely to garner more interest than the latest garage band."
ReplyDeleteOf course, it's a vicious cycle -- if you don't cover topics that interest atypical readers, you don't grow your readership. You don't cover garage bands because most of your readers are baby boomers, but could it be that most of your readers are baby boomers because you don't cover garage bands? Chicken and egg, of course, and I'm sure this isn't a question that hasn't already been discussed in depth.
A couple of hundred leaders from the city go to the Capitol for Mankato Day, and there is no coverage?
ReplyDeleteCharlie
ReplyDeleteWe wrote a preview story on the event published Friday, Feb. 10.
We went to the event and covered it in 2010, and according to our research, 546 of the 8,000 people on our web site viewed that story, not that much reader interest.
If you read my blog, we have to ask...."how does the impact people." What would be your answer?
It's difficult to cover an event like this because the news ends up being "We're here to talk to people and let them know what we think about Mankato....and the other side says, It's just good to hear from mankato people," but it's difficult to write a story that shows big impact on our readers daily lives, which we always strive for.
It's possible a concrete impact might show up later and we certainly could do a follow up story on that if someone has something for us.
So this year, we handled it with a "preview". It's good for the community to know it's happening and why, but there usually is not much "news" to cover at the event itself.