A throw-your-hands-up moment

Today we’re going to take a look at something near and dear to my heart.
Newspapers.
What the heck is going on with people’s impressions of newspapers? And, if you were sitting next to me at Turnwater or the Cabaret, you would have just heard the inflection in my voice go waaaay high.
We learned this week that another news outlet has eliminated their sports editor’s position. That outlet is The Hawkeye. We don’t need to stand on some age-old PR tactic of never mentioning companies who do the same thing we do.
The Hawkeye used to be my go-to read every day. Even as a child I’d read the sports section and then, out of sheer curiosity, I would read the news. I’m sure that’s where my passion for writing began.
I’ve written about this before, but it’s where my love of sports began. Reading baseball stats and standings, NFL standings and briefs and stories about my teams. When I got into high school, I read about the other teams so I knew who the kids were that I was going to have to go up against on a Friday night or during the week in the winter.
It framed who I am.
After hearing of that decision to eliminate that position, I began to really dig deep into where the local news industry is going. I’ve been thinking all week about what Pen City Current is, and what it will look like a year from now, five years…ten years.
I’ve had conversations with family, friends, coworkers, and peers in the field over the past several days and I’m just at a loss.
I think the base of the conversation starts with reader habits. What are you reading?
Do you take social media as your most reliable source of local news? I don’t think you can take it as the source of national news, because honestly, I see some of these news reels, even if they have the news organization’s logo on them, and I don’t know if its real or not.
We know foreign countries and evil-doers have cloned social media sites. How do you really, really know if that’s real or not? And you’re seeing more question marks in my writing this week than you ever have before. It really speaks to my state of mind right now.
I just don’t know. And that’s a little scary. Not that I don’t know, I’m not a genius by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s scary because we own a company and we don’t know what the future holds.
Some of the conversations I’ve had centered on people choosing news sites on social media based on what they personally want to “hear” on a daily basis. Not necessarily what is actually happening on a daily basis.
Well, what the hell is the business model for that?
I thought about having a round table of sorts over some snacks and drinks in a business after hours format, but I’m not sure people would value the conversation over the snacks.
I need information. I need input from our readership to help determine what we need to do as an organization to continue to bring you news that you can trust, while at the same time, keeping you engaged and even entertained.
But I even have stress about that. Is it too late for the community news organization? Are people so “tractor-beamed” to social media for information that they’ve forgotten that being in the know means being informed. This week has told me that maybe we don’t want to be informed,  and we want our news outlets to cater to us on a personal level. I think in simpler terms it means we need validation of our beliefs over consumption of what is actually happening.
I don’t think that’s “just fine” because validity of source and the trust of that source is critical to news gathering, i.e. we have to have your trust. You may not always like what we write, but we need to know you trust us to be fervent in our approach, and accurate in our information. No one is perfect, or as I like to say, no one operates on a plane of perfection. But the body of work has to be valued. So how do you mix that in with the propensity of people to migrate to news that impacts their lives where they live. We want to provide a mechanism where you consume, and at the core, trust the content despite your political or emotional leanings.
And what about sports??
We’re seeing people don’t want to read long stories that take you into the game. That used to be why we read. We wanted to know the coaches' reactions, or players' insight, but are we in such a hurry  “ain’t nobody got no time for dat”? Do you just want us providing local high school sports, or are you interested in locally produced copy about SCC, the University of Iowa, or Western Illinois?
Is it just families and friends reading about kids playing locally and no one else? I’m looking for feedback, but I don’t even know the best way to get that feedback. Maybe this week’s offering will generate some comments and that would be fantastic. I’m really not looking for likes and dislikes. What I want to know is what you think the future of news is. How do you want it delivered, what are your reading habits, what do you think the future looks like for people who try to bring you news and sports, and information about people who provide you goods and services. I’d even be open to ideas on how to survey for this information. I don’t like social media polls because we’ve seen they can be manipulated and not generate granular valuable information. This is a real throw-your-hands-up moment for me.
In other words, how do you access information about your community, whether it be newsmakers or product makers and sellers. What is the best way to engage, and in many cases, re-engage you in news consumption.
We’re going to keep providing the information to you and we’re going to keep looking for ways to bring it to you the way you want it. So let me have it – right here if you want. There are no bad ideas or suggestions. I’m interested in everything you have to say. I may re-engage with you and I may not, but the value is in hearing from you.
“Help me, help you. Help meee…..help youuu!”
Man I’ve watched way too many movies – but that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.