The Sentinel has no shortage of feedback.
Publishing many thousands of words and images each day, the newspaper prompts some strong emotions — expressed mostly in the form of criticism, the most useful of which is constructive.
That’s what the Sentinel got six months ago when 14 people involved with tourism agreed to critique the newspaper’s coverage of that industry as part of the Associated Press Managing Editors’ National Credibility Roundtable project.
The panelists included representatives of attractions, hotels, restaurants, conventions, sports, law enforcement, education, economic development and transportation.
They found little fault with day-to-day tourism coverage but objected, in particular, to what they saw as opinion injected into enterprise reporting, sensational headlines and lack of depth in key areas.
The Sentinel took that criticism to heart, showing a videotape of the session to the entire business-news staff, which is responsible for the bulk of the newspaper’s tourism coverage. Gail Rayos, associate managing editor for business news, noted several developments since the roundtable session:
* In-depth reports monitoring how companies are coping with the economy, specifically travel.
* A series, called Future World, looking at what lies ahead for local tourism.
* Participation in a newsroom-wide effort to diversify the lists of people to whom reporters go for information.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve done this as a direct response to what we heard,” Rayos said.
Whatever the impetus, it seems to have had a beneficial effect, in the eyes of some of the members of the tourism panel:
* Abe Pizam, head of the Rosen School of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida, said he found “reporting on the tourism industry and tourism-industry issues much better balanced.”
* Maureen Brockman, vice president for marketing and communication for the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, noted improvement in the appropriateness of both graphic illustrations and headlines: “The cog seems to have been turning.”
* Tom Ackert, executive director of the Orange County Convention Center, said, “I think the focus [of the Sentinel's tourism reporting] has been on the business side, and that has been good.” He added, “The news [about tourism] is not good, but the reporting of it is.”
* Rich Maladecki, president of the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association, said, “I sense, to date, that the coverage relating to local tourism has been fairer” and extended that evaluation to headlines. He wondered, though, “Will it last?”
That seems likely. In response to the criticism last September of the lack of expertise, Rayos is planning a series of staff workshops “to enrich understanding of [the] tourism economy.”
Journalism isn’t designed to please those being written about, but it should be fair.
