Man on the Street — good idea?

So by a twist of fate, I'm an editor at a very small weekly in a town of less than 7,000 people. Our editorial page is shit (state senator's columns and capital briefs), so I was thinking of ways to improve it. I've always thought all "Man on the Street"-type things were lame (beside The Onion's), but it seems like a decent idea. A friend suggested I call random city leaders once a week to ask if they wanted to write a guest column, any other ideas?

I'm producing almost all of the content, so a non-fluff column from me is almost out of the question.

 

So what made you decide they were less lame?

If you do them, I think you need to include a mug shot and make them on a particular topic of interest.

 

I'm still not sure. I know I want a more local editorial section, but I don't have time to write columns, so it's something quick, easy and local.

 

I was tempted to pick every wino downtown because I wanted "Man on the Street" to be an accurate heading.

 

Man on the street stuff skips "easy" and proceeds directly to "lazy." There's never any nutritional value to 'em.

 

On the other hand, what sells at the grocery story? Metamucil and soy milk or Coke and Pop Tarts?

 

I may be lazy, but that doesn't change the fact I can't write any columns of substance for the editorial section.

 

I'd pretty much echo this. I've worked at a few papers with some basic question of the week formats that ran with mug shots ... damned if I didn't read them all every week.

My college paper did one once asking people what they were going to do over the summer and one of the respondents was a dog, who said, "Sniff people's butts."

Ah, college. (Note this was after I graduated, haha)

 

WFW, Moddy. As much as I hated doing them, they always rated well among readers.

The trick is not to ask anything that requires much knowledge from the man on the street or else you'll be out there all day.