Building from the inside out
One of the hats that an editor wears is chief figure in the complaint department. That is, when a reader has a complaint about… well, almost anything… the call ends up to my office. It’s part of the job and you get used to it.
Some complaints are about content – someone disagrees with an editorial or disapproves of a story focus. These are often the best kinds of “complaint,” because my response is always the same: if you disagree or feel we got something wrong, don’t waste your time talking to me… instead, write a letter to the editor and offer your insight or rebuttal for everyone to read. Dialogue is good.
Some complaints are reasonable and understandable. Some aren’t. Some callers have valid, viable points to discuss. Some really don’t. If a person is rational and relatively polite about whatever his beef is, I do my best to listen and provide rationale if requested.
A couple of complaints this week are worthy of broader discussion and I am dedicating this column, and next week’s to addressing them, because they’re well thought-out and warrant some explanation to anyone who might feel similarly.
A rather polite woman was upset this week that Minot Daily News is not covering enough news from the greater region, those areas outside Minot and near the perimeter of our coverage area. She asserted that the newspaper used to cover more news from the small towns dotting the landscape, and she was upset we didn’t do nearly as much as that.
This is a perfectly viable criticism. Because… she is right. We do not cover as much from the region as we used to several years ago (and presumably further back in history). The reasons for this, however, are many and are not arbitrary. Nor is this reality meant to diminish the significance of outlying towns, their residents or institutions.
This is one of those things that, to understand, you have to remember that newspaper is a business, not a utility or a function of the public sector. And, like all businesses, newspapers’ first responsibility is to remain viable so it can continue to function and provide the service it provides.
Also, as I have written about before, newspaper is in a state of flux. Technology swept in to create competition like never before and our whole industry is in a long process of reinventing itself to adapt to the new reality, new economics, etc.
While this has been going on for two decades or so, here the newspaper was in a little bit of a bubble. While other newspapers were hit hard be economics and began to evolve some time back, the oil boom here reduced the impact of the new media reality for several years. We’re only now making the kind of changes we would have been making maybe a decade ago, were it not for the boom.
Again, the changes aren’t arbitrary. They’re driven by the need to adapt to a new marketplace, to remain viable and continue providing the best service we can with the resources we have available. That resource pool is considerably smaller than it used to be.
Which leads us to our coverage area. When the paper was rich in resources, it was easy to dedicate those necessary to cover a larger area of the state. It is much harder now with fewer resources. Furthermore, from my beginning here in 2015, the plan has been to focus on strengthening our inner core – the Minot area – and building out from there as resources permitted. Now, we have made a lot of progress on the former. We’re printing more local, Minot area news than we were two years ago by a long shot (we actually keep statistical track of this) and we have added plenty of new voices and features targeting our community. Oh, I have a ton of things still to institute in 2017 and the years ahead, but there has been real progress.
However, re-allocating resources to achieve the first part of the plan has reduced those available to invest in regularly covering areas on the periphery of our coverage area. It’s as simple as that. While we are always working to find community contributors and build alliances to help flesh out coverage, this is our reality and it is Business 101.
There is another factor outside of our control – circulation. We don’t have as many readers as we once did in the towns outside of Minot, which has reduced demand for coverage.
Hopefully, the future will see an improved economic environment in which our innovations lead to the increased resources needed to once again be able to cover our entire region as intensely as we cover Minot. It’s an objective.
In any event, for anyone seeking explanation, there you go, as succinct and transparent as can be. While some might not like the changes being made at the newspaper, the changes aren’t random or thoughtless. On the contrary, they’re all made to help make sure Minot Daily News can continue doing what it has for a century. It’s quite a challenge, but make no mistake here – every day of the week, I have a very hard-working staff dedicated to our goal. We’ll make progress and I hope you all will be along for the ride, helping guide and direct our efforts – wherever in the region you live.