Thursday, March 28, 2024

Editor’s mailbag is overflowing

As the editor of a local community newspaper, it’s common to field lots of questions throughout the week from various people regarding different aspects of the newspaper.

First of all, I’d like to say that it is encouraging to see that our readers care enough to offer comments, suggestions and yes, even some complaints about what we do with the newspaper. It actually excites me when I find out that someone has called or written a letter about our practices, even if it something that can be perceived as a negative. It tells me people are reading the newspaper and take ownership in what we do on a weekly basis. They have certain expectations of what they want to see in the newspaper.

With that being said, I also want to stress that it’s impossible for us to be everything to everybody. We have such a small staff that it’s hard for us to cover every event going on in the large area that we cover, which includes all of Steele County and portions of three other counties: Dodge, Freeborn and Mower. I wish I could utilize a couple more reporters to cover all the great activities that happen in our communities, but at the end of the day, we are a small operation trying to do big things and sometimes we fall short.

I’d like to go back over the past few weeks and share some questions or concerns that arose with our operation and some answers as to why we did things a certain way. It may not exactly be the answer you were hoping for, but I hope you will respect our position as to why something was done a certain way.

Here’s a sampling from the editor’s mailbag:

• Why didn’t I get my newspaper this week?

This is the dreaded question every publisher fears getting each week. While there are times when something has gone amiss on our end by our own doing, many times it ends up being out of our control. Our newspapers are delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. Newspapers are considered Periodical Class Mail with no guarantee delivery within a specified time by the postal service. Once we deliver the papers to the post office (on Wednesday afternoon), it’s really beyond our control as to when they end up in your hands. From my experience, there are some strange routing and sorting techniques used by the postal service that frequently cause papers to be delivered later than they should be.

• Why are stories jumped to other pages in the paper?

Good question. We try to minimize the number of stories that we jump from page to page. Generally, our front page and main news pages throughout the newspaper have stories with continuations to other pages. In the case of the front page, we jump stories so that we can provide a greater selection of stories from all areas of our coverage area. We usually run five stories on the front page and try to provide visuals with photos and graphics to make them more appealing to look at and want to read. The worst thing that we sometimes set ourselves up for is getting the jump wrong, which makes readers go on a scavenger hunt through the paper to find the rest of the story. However, I’m happy to report that doesn’t happen very often. It’s hard balance for us to accomplish when everybody in every community is fighting for coverage in the paper.

• How do I get coverage in the paper?

We encourage people to reach out to us through in person contact at our office, email, regular mail, phone call or reach out to us through social media. We are a local newspaper that packs its pages with local news. We want to know what’s going on in the communities we cover. We may not always be able to be there, but we can still get something in the paper with your help. Contact us, please!

• It seems the color production has improved lately. What has changed?

In June, the Times switched printing companies and is now printed at the House of Print in Madelia. We have also noticed a significant improvement in the overall quality of the pages. We are thrilled that we made this change and that readers are taking notice.

As you can see the editor’s mailbag has been overflowing lately, and that’s a good thing. It’s gratifying to see so many people care about their local newspaper. It’s one reason why I hope newspapers never go away.

Another call is coming in. Time to go in hot pursuit of helping yet another reader understand their community newspaper.

 

 

 

 

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Dodge County Independent

Dodge County Independent
Dodge County ADvantage
301 S. Mantorville Ave.
Plaza 57 • Suite 200
Kasson, MN 55944

Dodge County Printing
301 S. Mantorville Ave.
Plaza 57 • Suite 200
Kasson, MN 55944

507-634-7503
 
Hours: 
Monday-Thursday 10a.m.-3p.m.