By Narda Zacchino
American Society of Newspaper Editors © 1999
The concept of a newsroom liaison with the public was batted around for years at the Los Angeles Times, to no avail. Top editors weren’t fond of the idea; they were hesitant to publicly acknowledge mistakes and misjudgments or to incur negative reaction from the newsroom.
But Editor Michael Parks believed the newspaper was too distant from its readers. He asked me last fall to see what other newspapers were doing to connect to their readers. I contacted virtually all ASNE editors, and scores responded (thank you!). We learned what worked and what didn’t. From that information, we crafted our readers’ representative position, which Parks announced March 18 in a story on page A3. (One reader quipped: “If this job was so important, how come it wasn’t on Page One?”). In the announcement, Parks noted: “We need to draw closer to our readers, to serve their interests and meet their needs more fully. We also need to demystify our practice of journalism and to hold ourselves more accountable to our ideals and professional standards.’”
The first call came in that day at 4:54 a.m. from a reader wanting coverage of college lacrosse, and since then, we have received more than 15,000 calls and letters. Some are full of prai
Readers are overwhelmingly enthusiastic about having someone at the Times hear them out. Whether or not attributable to the readers’ rep office, subscription cancellations for editorial reasons dropped from 77 in the second quarter of 1998 to only 11 in the comparable period this year. Maybe it’s more satisfying — and just as easy — to pick up a phone and rant at someone than to call to cancel a subscription.
A box on A2 invites readers to contact us. It carries all my contact information and asks for questions or concerns about anything in the newspaper or the Times’ journalistic standards and practices.
I write an occasional column explaining our practices or commenting on issues that have generated reader comment. Examples include our coverage of the Balkan war, “The Boondocks” comic strip, and how we missed covering a large Iranian demonstration in Los Angeles. Future columns will deal with anonymous sources, bias, tobacco ads, and other areas where we have a credibility gap.
The readers’ rep staff prepares a weekly report for Parks and the publisher and a bi-monthly newsletter for the staff.
The main responsibility is to listen to readers — about 125 a day call and write. We also answer calls and letters forwarded to us from other departments if they have to do with readership issues. My best advice to anyone starting such an endeavor would be to be prepared for a massive response. When we announced the position, I was overwhelmed. My staff now includes a deputy, a temporary assistant, a part-time editorial assistant who returns calls 4 hours a day, and a secretary who processes letters and returns calls. Calls are taped and transcribed. It took three months to catch up to the backlog of calls and e-mail.
The job has paid off. Readers have challenged us and made an impact. Complaints about a new crossword puzzle prompted us to throw it out and send its authors back to the drawing board. Because of readers, we’re considering publishing bill numbers in legislative stories and case numbers in legal stories. We’re more sensitive to complaints of bias, and criticism of errors led Parks to create a team to examine why we make so many grammatical errors. We are also drafting a new corrections policy.
Some readers complain about noneditorial issues — print quality, circulation and advertising — and we forward those complaints to the senior vice presidents responsible for those areas. They respond to readers and send us copies of their responses. We forward many reader queries to the editors who can best handle the response. This is critical to the success of this operation — that everyone in editorial — not just the readers’ reps — realizes a responsibility to be responsive to readers.
How does the staff respond? Remarkably, while a few staff members have criticized aspects of the columns, the overwhelming response is highly supportive. The most uttered phrase I heard from editorial folks after the announcement: “It’s about time.”
Zacchino, associate editor of the Los Angeles Times, is also its reader representative.
