Rarely do I hear from readers who demand to know why we spotlighted a certain individual, business or organization if the story says they have been honored or represent a first.
Minus that explanation, a story especially a lengthy one given centerpiece display will sometimes spark reader reaction.
As was the case with “The wedding planner,” staff writer Denise Watson Batts’ well-crafted feature story on the cover of Tuesdays Daily Break.
Surprisingly, the complaints didn’t come from other wedding planners but from their customers. Like the female caller who said she was “appalled” to read Batts’ story.
“There are two wedding planners in this community that do some of the greatest weddings that are ever done,” she said, giving their names, which I won’t repeat for fear of offending customers of other planners.
“If you’re going to do an article on a wedding planner,’ another caller opined, “you should do one on —–. She plans the wedding, does the flower arranging and everything. Too bad, shes awesome.”
Get the idea?
Batts wasn’t surprised at this reaction. She recalled that some of the individuals who worked with Andrea Roberts, whom she profiled, told her Roberts “was good, but not the biggest nor has she been in business the longest.”
Actually, those were some of the factors that most appealed to Batts. “I did not want anyone wed quoted before,” she said.
That’s good because, too often, journalists go with the biggest, arguably the best, and sometimes an individual or business that has already gotten media attention.
Or the story or feature has some obvious peg: Did I mention “the first”?
Batts got the idea for the wedding planner story from viewing the movie of the same name, and wondering if planners were “really that finicky.”
She came across Roberts’ name while researching another story and contacted her. “When I met her, I saw how she cataloged every single invoice, etc.,” Batts recalled. “I also found it interesting that shed grown up a tomboy, never imagining this as a career.”
In addition, Roberts “had a bride and groom who didn’t mind me following their planner around, which was also necessary,” Batts added.
The result: A very readable story about a fascinating and yes, finicky wedding planner.
If you missed Batts’ story, you can see it online by clicking the “ePilot” button on PilotOnline.com, logging in and selecting Tuesday’s date from the menu at the top. The Daily Break section is listed on the left.
PROPER CREDIT: A reader contacted me earlier this year who was concerned that twice in a week The Pilot had published photos of architectural renderings without crediting them to the architectural firm. In one instance, the credit line read “Courtesy of the city of Suffolk.”
The e-mailer said: I would like to see The Pilot be more consistent in viewing the work of an architect the same way we view a piece of artwork, which [the newspaper] would never publish without naming the artist.”
I heard from that reader again Wednesday, when The Pilot published a rendering of the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center with this credit: “Bill Tiernan/The Virginian-Pilot file photo.”
Tiernan photographed the rendering in 1999, and a former staff photographer had written a caption then that said “Picture taken by Bill Tiernan.”
I began talking with newsroom photo officials about how the paper handles such credit, asking if we needed guidelines or a policy covering the matter.
I was pleased Thursday to see a large color rendering of Christ and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and a planned addition clearly identified in the caption as “a drawing.”
But I was mystified to see “Mark Mitchell/The Virginian-Pilot” as the credit line. A reader might assume that Mitchell, a retired Pilot photographer, drew the rendering when he merely photographed it.
After more discussions Thursday, the following “Credit Line Guidelines for Handouts” were issued by Alex Burrows, the paper’s photography director:
- Renderings, architectural drawings and handout art will be credited to the person who created the art or the source [from whom) the art was obtained.
- Do not credit the photographer who copied the photo.
The Pilot has increasingly credited such items to a courtesy source, but not to their creator, the assumption being that the company that paid for an architectural rendering is now its legal owner, Also, I’m told, architectural firms occasionally don’t want to be directly credited.
But crediting a staff photographer for copying the item is a practice I’m glad to see end. It’s an unearned credit.
