Sad day for community journalism

Heartland Publications is well on its way to eliminating what is left of two community newspapers, The Yadkin Ripple and The Tribune. Not only have they stooped to allowing a local political candidate to write 'staff reports,' they are now using outside sources that include the local police chief, town manager and chamber director. Sadly, the readers will probably never know the difference, even though they deserve much better. But if all you're left with are recipes, leftover articles from sister publications and advertorials, it's time to put both publications out of their misery.

 

I am so happy I got out of dodge before Heartland bought my old rag. This is F'ing embarrassing.

 

Before I got to my current shop, it was using mostly wire copy (wire for us is a wire service run by the local university's J-school) and press releases from various departments around the county. Yes, the county's state's attorney's office actually used to get taglines for some of my shop's "stories" before I got there.

For one thing, I average about one wire story every two weeks now. For another thing, I don't run press releases and pretend they're news stories. At least some things have gotten better...

Sucks for The Ripple and Tribune.

 

It's funny to hear these various 'sources' quoted in their own submissions. Of course, they can't really be blamed. Management, which put all of this into play in the sake of 'consolidations,' doesn't have a clue. And those who remain behind in the so-called 'news' departments at both of these publications have never seen an AP style manual and can't write their way out of the proverbial paper bag. Active voice? Inverted pyramid? Attribution? Sources? Just publish some crappy feature art, grab another guest column and print the damn thing. Advertisers will follow, right?