Back in early 2006, we started a news meeting in a local cafe, outside the confines of the office, to plan our weekly news budget.
It became a habit and now we hold our news meetings most Wednesday mornings — publicly.
The idea was to improve our news coverage through the give-and-take public interchange that occurs when out in the community — the potential feedback that could make one story more important or timely than another; and for story ideas that could have slipped past us if we had met privately; and for comments on our coverage hopefully leading to improvements.
The idea has worked now these 10 years.
As I wrote about this in 2006, we have quite a hodgepode of ideas to sift through each week and we rarely have a slow news week.
Our weekly news list, which is passed out among attendees for them to keep, consists of about eight pages of ideas and mandatory meetings to attend.
The meetings fall into that week’s budget in rhythm with their schedules. We fill the rest of the “Editor’s Log” from a list of feature stories, events and other issues, as well as photo ops.
Many regulars attend these meetings — now held at the Town Crier office — and we look forward to their input and concerns. Most recently, if I have time, I’ll even brew a pot of coffee that a couple of people enjoy, despite my lack of experience in the java-making field.
We invite you to attend. We meet most Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m. Participants receive a free paper, a news list and inside information on issues that affect their lives in the community. Pull up a chair and join us. You also may find it quite entertaining.
Becky Clark, Editor