Be a Respected Journalist in Small Communities
Journalists, both print and broadcast in nature, can be successful while covering the politics, special events and various daily feature opportunities associated with small communities.
After all, I have decided that big cities and small towns are innately different. I have lived in small towns like Cameron, West Virginia, (population 1,200), and I spent two years in Phoenix, Arizona, one of the 10 most populated metropolitan areas in the country. So, true, people are people in some basic ways, but it has been my experience that their attitudes about life and, specifically, their everyday lives, are not the same.
Establishing one’s self in any newspaper can be difficult at times, especially in the early stages, but with a lot of hard work and complete honesty with the editors and the readers, you can have a solid relationship and your job will remain in tact.
For the record, I am referring to communities listed with fewer than 2,500 residents.
I began my career with a smaller daily newspaper in February 1999. The managing editor hired me with the intention to use me as a part-time headline writer and a part-time sports reporter. It was a full-time career opportunity, complete with medical benefits and two weeks of vacation.
I was brand new to the news scene as I spent the last few years as a customer service representative with a major utility company. Prior to that, I did spend a couple of years with a rival newspaper in the sports department. My educational background was broadcast news at West Virginia University in Morgantown, and the The Academy of Radio and Television Broadcasting in Phoenix.
After a couple of weeks training to write headlines, I was feeling my way in the small news room. But, soon things changed that would outline the course of my newspaper experience.
During the first week of March, 1999, a small snow storm struck North Central West Virginia. It turns out that a young boy fell into nearby Buffalo Creek. He had to be rescued. He was fine, but the rescue hit the newspapers.
The reporter that would have normally covered the incident was unable to get to work until later. I was asked to make a few calls to help the reporter develop the story for the next day’s edition. After the calls were made, the reporter still had not reported to work. I took it upon myself to develop a story based on my experience with sports four years earlier. In the end, I had a story to file, but had no idea that the editor would use it. She was pleased with my work, both with the initiative that I took to do it, and the ability I showed.
From that point forward, I was yanked from the sports department and was told that I would assist in reporting for the newsroom. I knew that I had a lot of brushing up to do, but the managing editor told me that I was needed. She began giving me assignments to fill space – noncontroversial topics that still needed to be do. I continued doing that along with my headline writing two days each week. By July of that year, I had my very own beat – a multitude of story lines from town council to the solid waste authority to the parks commission.
Truth be told, it did not start out that way – what started out as a couple of beats turned out to nearly a dozen after about one year.
I remember one community in particular. It had about a population of about 400. It was a very tight-knit town that was certainly not accustomed to any press whatsoever – good or bad. And the bad almost always overshadowed the bad. One of the last stories that I came across was two years earlier – a coal train had toppled over.
A relationship can grow with town officials to the point where they rely on the influence of the journalist’s press.
At the time, I did not officially ‘cover’ this particular community. I merely contacted a councilperson to develop a story about the drought that the area had endured during the course of the spring and summer. The town relied on three ground wells to supply the residents with enough water water for drinking, bathing and the like. When I called the councilperson, I only received closed-ended answers to my open ended questions. It was frustrating. But I continued to be polite, and never forced her to answer anything that she did not feel comfortable. The interview lasted about 20 minutes but, in the end, I was invited to attend the next council meeting.
And I did.
She greeted me just a couple of days later in the town hall. I could tell the she was still apprehensive. But not less so than her fellow town council members. They would not look me in the eyes and I could tell that my presence made them feel quite uncomfortable. They were reluctant in speaking. It made my job, reporting in the meeting, difficult because there was very little to report. But things got better.
I did manage to put together a decent little story. The next day, I received a call from the original councilperson telling me that she appreciated my objective story – that I did not formulate a fictitious account of the meeting the night before. She indicated that the community had bad press over the years and that was why town officials were always reluctant to speak with members of the press.
Largely because of the positive feedback I received, I spoke with my editor about the possibilities of spending even more time with that town. With the editors backing, I did what I said I would – give the town the best press that it had ever received. That included truth, and looking out for underlying issues that the residents had wanted for years, but they just did not know how to go about it. They felt like they were alienated.
In addition to visiting all of the town council meetings, I spent time covering fairs and festivals. I wrote a business story any time there was a new store in town, or if the department of transportation dedicated a bridge in town. I would dig into information relevant to a new water line, or a proposed senior center. I spent more time in that community than I did in the office.
They relied on me, and they trusted me. And word of my reputation spread into neighboring communities. They liked what I did for them – just doing my job, but doing it right – no frills, just objective, descriptive albeit colorful accounts.
So you can do it – be a journalist that is respected, not shunned. But there not a good answer about how long it will take. Just go with it. The officials and the readers will let you know. You will be able to tell. Just do not push it.
Just be yourself and, most importantly, believe in yourself.
