I have been thinking a great deal recently about the multiple roles a newspaper plays in a community. I suppose all this thinking stuff has something to do with my job, or I am low on my buttermilk smoothies.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I am fortunate that I get to roam around to numerous newspapers owned by Sound Publishing and pester folks. This roaming has given me the opportunity to watch a lot of very talented writers crafting stories and many fine newsrooms putting out papers.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n A newspaper is a different kind of a chicken. It is a business that carries the limitations and, most importantly, the responsibilities of First Amendment protection.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Most businesses are concerned about keeping the doors on the hinges and selling widgets smothered in cheese.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The intriguing part of producing a newspaper is the number of balls that must be kept in the air to keep the presses running.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n I have read a pile of articles over the last few years from around the country about the future of newspapers. Many are either misinformed or in service of great and glorious Wizard of I Am Smarter than You.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Most of the articles I have come across predicting the future of newspapers are authored by someone who is not producing a paper \u2013 although the writers often say they did once, or their parents did, or they knew a guy down the street who read a newspaper\u2026 once.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n I learned long ago never to predict the future. I can barely predict where I will be in the next seven minutes, or remember where I am supposed to be in the next seven minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The wonderful writers at my newspaper who are constantly telling me where I should be and pointing out that I am not there \u2026 wherever there is. Nothing like youth and a functional brain, complete with memory. I must have had that once, but I don\u2019t really remember. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Here is my secret decoder ring forecast on the future of anything: No one has a clue \u2013 including those hair-piece wonders with beer <\/span>cans strapped to their heads waiting for the apocalypse. (I hate to break the bad news, but the apocalypse happened last month and the Seahawks lost.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n I believe newspapers will be around because of the story. The form a newspaper will take I don\u2019t know, but the story is the thing. Story is a spiritual being that demands great discipline and patience. If the writer is quiet and stays still long enough, the story will speak.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Read the writings of the talented reporters in this paper and others around the company and you will see what I mean.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Story is the thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Reach Dennis Box, regional editor, at dbox@maplevalleyreporter.com or 425-432-1209, ext. 5050.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n I have been thinking a great deal recently about the multiple roles a newspaper plays in a community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-17357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17357"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=17357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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