Why I Gave Up Writing For the Local Newspapers
Too Much Control and Not Enough Freedom
Years ago, writing for the local newspaper was on the top of my list of things to accomplish. When I saw an ad that they needed a journalist I jumped at the chance and emailed my writing resume immediately. The next day the editor of the paper emailed me back and set up a meeting. I met her at the office and we discussed the terms of covering stories for them.
I started at the bottom like any other job and began attending council meetings and school board meetings. I really did not mind it at first. It was interesting to attend the meetings and hear what was going on in the local towns around the tri-county area. I simply turned on my recorder and quietly sat through the one or two hour meeting. I would go home and listen to the recording while typing up the minutes.
I basically began to feel simply like a secretary. Trying to come up with something interesting out of those board meetings was difficult to say the least on a regular basis. The payment was $35 per article plus mileage. So, not too bad for a beginner. To my understanding, everyone starts at the bottom and has to cover board meetings first.
I got used to the editor changing my title, or moving my paragraphs around. No big deal. But sometimes I would find typos or misspelled words in the final print edition, and that did bother me because the mistake was not there when I submitted my article. But, I was getting a lot of publishing credits and I was getting paid to write.
The other two papers in the area began asking me to cover items for them also, so I was actually attending 2 or 3 meetings per week for a while. Eventually I was given some feature stories to cover and these I enjoyed. I got to interview someone who had done something special, or cover an event. I especially loved interviewing older members of the community. They have some great stories to tell. Those kind of articles can be quite enjoyable to write and to read.
I began pitching some of my own ideas for local stories and more times than not they were quickly shot down. I began to understand that it was all political. Why can we not get away from politics? Why do we have to always be politically correct? There are so many wonderful things happening in the community that nobody knows about. It really is a shame.
Finding out that the editors and owners of the paper are on one side of the political spectrum explains why a lot of articles and events do not get covered, written or published.
I was carefully informed that the paper has to be careful what they cover or who they cover. If they cover too much in one school district over another school district, someone gets upset. If they upset one of their large advertisers they will lose much needed money. For instance, the paper did not cover a strike at one of the local factories because the factory was a huge advertiser. Really? Aren’t we all adults here? I slowly became disinterested in covering the board meetings anymore. I wanted more freedom with my writing.
Hence, here I am at medium writing about whatever I want to and putting it out there for anyone to read. I could have been here a long time ago but just never started. I currently write at several other internet sites and have my own website as well.
I know I have a lot to say, I just don’t know how to voice it out loud, so I write it down. I write more for me than for anybody else, and if by some chance, someone reads something I have written and likes it, then I am glad. I hope in some small way someone is helped or encouraged by something I have written.
I did manage to get my own weekly column for a while in the paper, but was let go when COVID-19 hit and local businesses dropped much of their advertising. The newspapers let go the reporters at the bottom of the list. That was okay with me. I was ready to move on anyway.
Journalism is not necessarily for me but I have made history. Every newspaper article I ever wrote is in the database. I have always been a writer and will write until the day I die. Maybe someday in the future someone will discover something I have written and it will be studied. Wouldn’t that be cool!?
