For the past five years, my job has been to be the guy in the middle, explaining to readers how newsroom decisions are made and letting reporters and editors know how readers react to those decisions.
The media have enormous influence on American life. We demand access to all kinds of government and corporate institutions as the eyes and ears of the public.
Yet, many Americans have no idea how the reporters, photographers and editors make their decisions.
My job has been to listen to people who do not ordinarily talk to journalists, but have a lot to say.
Here are some of the lessons you have taught me:
- Readers are suspicious of agendas. Some stories scream for action, a crusade, for reform. But most of the time, Americans don’t like being told what to do. They trust their own judgment. They want balanced, complete stories. They will resist – and resent – being pushed in some direction.
- The work of copy editors is absolutely critical and too often underappreciated. Seven times as many readers will scan a headline as will read an entire story. Yet, reporters will spend more time toiling over a reference in the 13th paragraph of a story than a copy editor will be given to put a headline on it. That’s screwy.
- Readers take the newspaper seeking information on a wide variety of subjects. Sometimes, they just want to be entertained. Items journalists might consider filler, less central to the newspaper’s mission, are nevertheless important to a reader’s daily routine. Accuracy counts everywhere, from the front page to the crossword puzzle.
- But listening to readers, connecting the newsroom to the various communities in the Valley, shouldn’t be the job of one individual. Arizona Republic Editor Tom Callinan believes it should be part of what everyone in the newsroom does: to listen attentively, learn comprehensively, inform impartially. He’s absolutely right.
- So this is my last column as reader advocate. For the past months, I’ve been juggling my time between answering phone calls and e-mails, helping to shape and write editorials and contributing in-depth pieces for Viewpoints. In that role, I’m removed from the daily news gathering process. In constantly juggling multiple roles, I worry I’m shortchanging readers.
Fortunately, some of my duties have already been assumed by Public Editor John D’Anna. D’Anna has been a top editor here for several years. He combines a strong news background with an appreciation of broader journalism issues, credibility, fairness and diversity.
Already, he has brought in more readers to our daily news meetings than I ever did.
Just last week, he and Callinan organized a frank, freewheeling discussion with members of the Valley’s Jewish community concerned about local and international coverage. D’Anna can be reached at (602) 444-2890. His job will be getting the right people in the newsroom involved with your concerns.
So the task of responding to readers will be in capable hands, experienced hands, multiple hands.
More hands than just mine.
