Given free rein, how would you respond?

In the real world: "Thank you for your feedback, and for taking the time to write."

In a perfect world: "Here's a cellphone. Call someone who cares."

 

Dear parent--

If you have a problem with it, start your own fucking paper.

Otherwise, lift up my sac and lick my ass, bitch.

 

You know, the second part actually is not a bad reply if you tone it down and the parent wasn't crazy. The truth is we are serving our readers, and many more of our readers are interested in Division I sports and revenue sports than swimming.
I've covered swimming. It's the only event I've ever covered where there are more participants than fans, and I am in an area with a state champion-caliber swim team.

 

a simple, 'we do the best we can, and where a stroy goes depends on what else is going on that day. thanks for feedback.'

I've told parents before that their team won on the wrong day, and if you make them understand that the decision as to where a story goes is made in the afternoon, and not by who wins, they generally understand.

that said, i have some swimming parents and coaches - and wrestling - that believe it should be covered more than football and basketball and that shit ain't happening. i tell them that in a nice way.

 

I've begun work on the special section, and willl get back to you when the cover featuring Rodney Dangerfield is complete.

 

The little bastard is only newsworthy if he drowns in the pool during an event. Now go away.

 

superb is served

 

Is there a problem with honesty here?

I think it'd be very easy to explain how reader interest in GB/Milwaukee basketball game - it was on ESPN for God's sake - interest in the best Wisconsin basketball team in history and the standard showcase story is a little higher than conference meet records in swimming.

 

Coming back with an angry response does nothing, and leaves neither party feeling better.

If you really want to get back at her, get her pregnant.

 

I'm not saying I don't agree with what everyone on here has said -- I do -- but is there a point in which reader complaints, even ones we disagree with, need to be taken into consideration?

In this instance, I'm in agreement with how the story was played. If swimming bumped one of those other stories off the front, there would have been a lot more calls coming in, I'm sure. But every time I read a thread like this where every journalist on here is explicitly sure they know what's right in the face of a reader's complaint, I can't help but wonder if that's part of the problem newspapers are facing now.

I'm all for maintaining the integrity of journalism -- but is it possible that we use our opinion for what should be as an excuse to ignore the demands of readers? And, right or wrong, in the long run, isn't that hurting the bottom line?

Again, I'm not saying this particular example is a good test, but just that I can't help but wonder if there's a large portion of the folks who post on here that are so sure they know how things should be done that nothing ever changes and eventually the whole industry will be surpassed by other forms of journalism that are more responsive to what readers want.

 

Dear Douchebag:

Fuck swimming.

-30-

 

The following is an illustration of those giving serious answers in this thread:

point