My perspective - Serving up a balanced diet鈥� of news
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- Published on Friday, April 26, 2019
By Kate Jackman-Atkinson
Neepawa Banner & Press
Some weeks, I worry that we鈥檒l scare off our readers. As we left for the holiday weekend, the list of completed or in process stories included two about Neepawa council (both about the financial plan), two about local annual general meetings, one about changes at the planning district and one about the impact on businesses of the federal and provincial budgets. I was (only sort of) joking that we鈥檇 scare our readers away from the May 2 paper; they wouldn鈥檛 yet have woken up, a week later.
But the one thing you can always guarantee in this business is that there will be change and the unexpected鈥� our plans are almost never executed in the way we originally planned. Something always comes up. That was the case for this paper, as Monday morning greeted us with the major news that HyLife Ltd, the company the owns HyLife Foods, Neepawa鈥檚 largest employer, was to be bought by Thailand鈥檚 largest agricultural conglomerate, Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF).
By Monday at lunch time, only a few hours after we had posted it on our website, the story had been viewed more times than last week鈥檚 paper. I鈥檓 sure lots of readers will be picking up the hard copy of this week鈥檚 paper to find out more about what this will mean for the community. This breaking news meant that it wouldn鈥檛 be all financial reports for readers this week. Phew!
Some weeks, putting together a newspaper feels a little like trying to force our readers to eat their vegetables. Municipal, provincial and federal budgets are extremely important and have a meaningful impact on people鈥檚 day-to-day lives. Policy changes and updates about the business community can signal the health of a community鈥檚 business sector and the employment it provides. But that doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 what most people want to read about, even though they know they should.
Most people want to read about the fun stuff. Our more popular stories involve sports, things kids are doing at school and inspiring stories about local residents. They involve accidents, crime and scandal. People pick up the paper for flyers and ads, to know what they should buy or where they should go. These most certainly aren鈥檛 junk, but they aren鈥檛 the veggies you begrudgingly eat, and only because someone is watching.
Here lies our challenge, we need to inform the public about these things, but few people have a good grasp of the terms鈥� balance sheet, income statement, audited or unaudited鈥� let alone what they mean. People know these things are important, but we need to help them understand what they鈥檙e reading. After reading a story, people should have a basic grasp of the facts, what the impact will be and where they can go for more information.
Information is more accessible than ever, but our job is to turn it into news. We take that raw information and help readers understand what it will mean for them; will they be paying more taxes or less, and what will the money fund? Who do they talk to before undertaking a building project? What is the expected impact on local jobs? If someone is only reading our story, what do they need to take away from it so they can be better and more engaged citizens?
As our readers look through this 鈥渧eggie鈥� rich paper, we hope we鈥檝e included enough seasoning (or bacon) to make them go down easily and maybe have readers coming back for more.
