You came. We talked. We all listened.
Nearly 70 readers visited five news meetings and got brief tours of the Free Press newsroom last week.
The meetings, which normally run about 30 minutes, went longer as readers offered their opinions and questioned editors’ decisions while editors responded and asked their own questions.
After introductions, Managing Editor Thom Fladung, who runs the morning meeting, asked readers what they thought about the front pages of the Free Press, USA Today, the Detroit News and the Oakland Press.
Some readers were drawn in by big headlines, others by photos. For some, it was the combination.
Fladung asked because front pages reflect what editors think is the most newsworthy information available in that day’s newspaper. But does that square with what readers want?
During Friday’s meeting, one reader asked Fladung to define news. He and other editors said: “It is what’s new. . . . It’s how something affects your life. . . . It’s what you pay, what’s it like to live in Detroit, America, where you live. . . . It involves change and how to deal with it. . . . It’s about alerting people to problems, but alerting them to solutions, too. . . . It’s about something broken or just fixed. . . . It’s perspective, especially when it’s not our own. . . . What people need to know and what they want to know.”
Editors tried to answer other questions, too, such as why so much of the news is negative, why race is used in some stories and not in others, and why isn’t more international news published?
A few readers did have particular issues with the newspaper, such as not enough reporting and support for Michigan’s small businesses. But most people said what they liked and disliked, and offered suggestions.
“It was very informative and just plain cool to take a behind-the-scenes look at a major newspaper,” said Janet Miesiak of Allen Park.
West Bloomfield’s Larry Hadley sees things a little differently now. He attended Monday’s meeting and sent an e-mail regarding Wednesday’s front-page story on Pfizer: “That was a GREAT graphic on page one that showed an inset map of the state, with little boxes of where the Pfizer centers would be. Good concept. I guess I appreciate the graphics angle a lot more now.”
Ultimately, I think readers came away with a better perspective on how Free Press journalists think about, discuss and decide what’s news.
“I was reminded again how passionately readers care about news and information — and about the Free Press and other newspapers,” Fladung said. “They care about news, who’s giving it to them, how they get it and what it says.”
