Cup O’ Joe: No easy answers to what stories gets published

Working for a newspaper puts one under a microscope like few other jobs. It requires a thick skin since for every person that praises the work you do, chances are there is another out there waiting to chastise you for the very same effort that is put forth.
Many people have asked me over the years how the paper chooses the stories it writes in a given week and why one story may get published while another may not. It’s a fair question, and not one with an easy answer.
    Each week, our paper’s editorial staff strives to come up with as much variety as possible to please readers from all walks of life.
Many times I, as have most of my peers in the business, have heard, “You only print bad news stories.” That’s not really a fair statement, especially for a weekly newspaper, which is filled with a solid mixture of what we call “hard news,”— the police, fire, breaking news, town councils and school board meetings —and “soft news,” such as features stories and other community items of interest.
We also dedicate space each week for our readers to voice their opinions in the form of “Letters to the Editor,” give space to our many social groups in our “Community Notebook” section and try to come up with a comprehensive listing of the events that take place in our region with our “What’s Happening” calendar.
“I can’t believe you didn’t cover (insert your event here)” is another popular complaint we receive. With an editorial staff of two people covering news and sports from Danforth to Bridgewater to Patten, we are at the mercy of our sources to let us know when something happens. Often times, we have to rely on others to submit a photo for us to consider because we can’t be in two places at once.
Social media has made the job a bit easier, since more people are witnessing, talking about and taking pictures at various events or incidents that may happen near them. We welcome those with photos of interesting items to contact us for details on how they can submit that item to the newspaper for publication.
The hardest stories are the ones that affect people the most, namely crime stories. When someone is arrested for a crime, it becomes a news story or may appear in the police log or court news. The best way for someone to keep their names out of these types of articles is so simple. Don’t break the law.
There are also those who like to tell you, “You are not the New York Times, you are just the weekly paper.” I often take that as a compliment, because it means we are doing our job. We strive to follow the same set of rules and criteria for news stories as the “big boys” in the newspaper world.
Joseph Cyr is a staff writer for the Houlton Pioneer Times. He can be reached at pioneertimes@nepublish.com or 532-2281.