The idea for a Reader Advisory Board came to us three years ago – to put together a group of people from the community to meet once a month, discuss ideas and concerns about the Journal-Tribune, or just learn how the newspaper is put together from start to finish.
This week kicked off a new group of residents who talked about several topics including the end of the printed edition of the Madison Press in London and our coverage of the Union County Fair.
Questions were asked as to how a newspaper could stop printing and what happens as a result of that. The conversation centered on factors such as lack of growth in the area and the out-of-town owner’s business model. The 175 year old Madison County paper is now published weekly online only with one person covering the entire county because the owners only have so many resources they are able to commit to pay for the operation. London is losing the center of its community in losing its daily newspaper.
Although we live within our means, too, here at the J-T, we try to plan ahead and run the operation for the betterment of the community. The bottom line on the financial statement isn’t always the top priority, yet we do still need to pay our bills.
With that said, when a question came up about our fair coverage we acknowledged the fact that we only have so many reporters here at the J-T and we need to plan how best to use those hours during the week of the fair while still getting the most coverage we can for the 4-Hers. Right or wrong, we decided to put all of our efforts into the junior fair livestock sale on Saturday, an all-day event, with four reporters working to compile the results of the sale so those young sellers have a keepsake edition.
Along with those efforts, after the fair is over we spend two weeks gathering the senior fair results and pictures of the project winners so we can publish them in the After-fair Results Guide. Some have wanted more coverage during the week and we understand their concern, but we are trying to do what we think is best with the resources we have available. Remember, this incudes the time consuming task of putting together the results guide.
We strive to be cognizant of what is happening in our industry and our area as we try to live within our means so the Journal-Tribune can be here for another 170 years.