There are three or four questions that I can guarantee every weekly reporter in the country gets asked at least a couple of times a week.
Personally I've always felt that the local press in particular should try and shed more of a light on its operations, because the better readers understand how their local title works, the more they feel it is their title.
With this in mind, I thought I'd start a semi-regular series of articles about the news-gathering process. Now admittedly the workings of a full-blooded newspaper and a local news blog are quite different, though many of the same principles apply.
I'll start by answering one of the most common questions-cum-complaints of them all.
Why don't you print any good news?
Local journalists regularly get accused of having an unhealthy pre-occupation with bad news, filling papers with tales of robbery, road accidents and ill health. The argument goes that good news is pushed aside or ignored in favour of controversy.
This criticism was always particularly common in North Solihull, with many residents feeling that the local press tended to dwell on the difficulties facing the area to the exclusion of the good work being done.
So, is the criticism justified? In part perhaps. There are certainly local papers who lack either the resources or imagination to do much more than repackage police and ambulance service press releases. Only last week I saw one weekly which had dutifully packed three court stories and a road traffic accident on one page near the front. Also to blame are those regional dailies who run a few too many front pages about fatal crashes. Death - some news desks believe - trumps everything.
I was lucky to train under an editor who put genuine store in light and shade. He very much drilled into us reporters the importance of including a real mix of stories on every page. A row over back garden development would rub shoulders with a charity marathon run. The story of a charity being burgled could keep company with a Diamond Wedding anniversary.
The problem is of course that bad stories tend to invoke the strongest response and linger in the memory rather longer, which is why even the papers who try and strike a balance are often accused of wallowing in misery.
That said, just because news is bad doesn't mean it's not relevant. I have to confess that I've always been wary of so-called good news publications, which try to make a virtue out of only carrying positive stories. The problem is that they're no more an accurate record of the local area than the paper packed with police mug shots. This "all's well" standpoint can, at times, be dangerously misleading.
Take the various council-published magazines which proliferate across Britain. While they may contain plenty of useful information for residents, the fact is that they make everything from a multi-million pound cost cutting programme to a highly unpopular development sound entirely beyond reproach. Here you need the journalist to look beyond the press release to the figures hidden away in council agendas and scrutiny boards. This is not reporters pursuing bad news for the sake of it, rather an attempt to highlight consequences or concerns that local authorities are going to be less than keen to advertise.
Similarly there is a legitimate place for crime-reporting in any publication. Justice should be seen to be done at the courts, while public appeals can help to catch culprits and raise the awareness which helps others to avoid becoming victims.
It is perhaps in the end a question of why you are running a story as what it's actually about.
Why don't you print any good news?
Local journalists regularly get accused of having an unhealthy pre-occupation with bad news, filling papers with tales of robbery, road accidents and ill health. The argument goes that good news is pushed aside or ignored in favour of controversy.
This criticism was always particularly common in North Solihull, with many residents feeling that the local press tended to dwell on the difficulties facing the area to the exclusion of the good work being done.
So, is the criticism justified? In part perhaps. There are certainly local papers who lack either the resources or imagination to do much more than repackage police and ambulance service press releases. Only last week I saw one weekly which had dutifully packed three court stories and a road traffic accident on one page near the front. Also to blame are those regional dailies who run a few too many front pages about fatal crashes. Death - some news desks believe - trumps everything.
I was lucky to train under an editor who put genuine store in light and shade. He very much drilled into us reporters the importance of including a real mix of stories on every page. A row over back garden development would rub shoulders with a charity marathon run. The story of a charity being burgled could keep company with a Diamond Wedding anniversary.
The problem is of course that bad stories tend to invoke the strongest response and linger in the memory rather longer, which is why even the papers who try and strike a balance are often accused of wallowing in misery.
That said, just because news is bad doesn't mean it's not relevant. I have to confess that I've always been wary of so-called good news publications, which try to make a virtue out of only carrying positive stories. The problem is that they're no more an accurate record of the local area than the paper packed with police mug shots. This "all's well" standpoint can, at times, be dangerously misleading.
Take the various council-published magazines which proliferate across Britain. While they may contain plenty of useful information for residents, the fact is that they make everything from a multi-million pound cost cutting programme to a highly unpopular development sound entirely beyond reproach. Here you need the journalist to look beyond the press release to the figures hidden away in council agendas and scrutiny boards. This is not reporters pursuing bad news for the sake of it, rather an attempt to highlight consequences or concerns that local authorities are going to be less than keen to advertise.
Similarly there is a legitimate place for crime-reporting in any publication. Justice should be seen to be done at the courts, while public appeals can help to catch culprits and raise the awareness which helps others to avoid becoming victims.
It is perhaps in the end a question of why you are running a story as what it's actually about.
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