The controversy over school busing is a big story affecting thousands of Jacksonville families.
The Times-Union has covered this story mostly through the eyes of officials: School Board members, busing officials, company spokesmen.
But a reader-oriented newspaper would focus on the people affected by the decision. Ride buses. Interview family members. Talk to students at bus stops. Go to the schools.
Now comes a mammoth study that says most newspapers desperately need more regular people in their pages. It’s not a new suggestion.
So why don’t newspapers do it? Maybe that stems from their culture, the mindset that dominates behavior.
Newspaper culture is “incredibly defensive,” said John Lavine, director of The Readership Institute at Northwestern University.
He based that statement on a survey of 5,500 newspaper employees at 90 newspapers nationwide. The survey was thorough and the results were consistent: 73 of the newspaper cultures were defensive.
“Even the researchers were startled by how defensive newspaper cultures were,” Lavine said in a phone interview last week.
The 17 newspapers that weren’t defensive were only mildly constructive. Yet, the newspaper staffs with constructive cultures produced newspapers with higher readership.
As described in the report: “Organizations with strong, constructive cultures excel at meeting both customer and employee needs and at adapting to competitive, technological and workplace changes. Defensive cultures resist change … today they are ill-equipped to respond to rapidly changing customer needs, surging competition and revolutionary advances in technology.”
A defensive culture that values consistency and conformity served the newspaper industry well when steady increases in circulation were the norm, Lavine said. That era is gone.
To increase readership, real people should be introduced in the newspaper on a regular basis, not just on Sunday, not just in the neighborhood section, not just in a special project, not just as a single anecdote in a meeting story.
A shortage of real people in the paper has many implications. For minorities, who have a special stake in overcoming stereotypes, traditional coverage means an over-emphasis on criminals in the news — pathology as the norm.
The good news is that Times-Union management is taking serious steps to bridge this cultural divide. And this newspaper has shown the ability to adapt to change. For instance, the Times-Union’s Web site, jacksonville.com, has been integrated into the newsroom culture and regularly wins awards.
But the stakes are serious. Lavine described newspapers as “people-less.”
A newspaper that is people-less will become reader-less, customer-less and profit-less.
For more information on the Readership Institute study, go to their Web site: www.readership.org.
Alert for young female softball players
River City Fall Softball Registration for girls of all ages is under way. Doubleheaders are played every Saturday at Victoria Park starting Sept. 15. Any team wishing to participate needs to contact Mark Johnson at 737-7036 or Jamie Walker at 737-1872. Team registration will be accepted until Sept. 1. The league has had trouble getting these announcements in the paper.
Previous reader advocate columns can be found on www.jacksonville.com. Click on Opinions. Do you have a question or complaint involving the news content of your newspaper? Phone: 359-4217. Mail: P.O. Box 1949, Jacksonville, FL 32231. Fax: 359-4478. E-mail: mclark@jacksonville.com. For information about photo reprints, please call Diane Dixon in Reader Services at 359-4219. For complaints about delivery of the paper, please call Customer Service at 359-4255. Mike Clark is available to speak to groups.
