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What do you think makes a readable local newspaper?
Is the answer to that the same one as what makes a newspaper a good one? And how do the answers to those questions change when that news source is not a local one?
At the very least, a newspaper needs to keep its readers up to date with accurate, timely and relevant news, provide essential information such as obituaries, public notices and event schedules, and do so while maintaining a publication schedule.
There’s another role newspapers must play, though.
The Current can report on everything the second it happens, but that alone isn’t enough, especially as the general news consumers of the country burn out trying to stay updated because of the emotional impact national news typically has.
It’s difficult to say people my age, in their mid-twenties, even consume the news at all. What little consumption does happen takes place in the seconds after the headlines — sensational, rational or somewhere in between — are examined and readers decide if the stress of the national news is worth the click.
Typically, it’s not.
Since local news has suffered a near fatal blow by the conglomeration of news sources, there aren’t many headlines worth the click for the people fresh out of college still beating a path through their early life.
News burnout is a serious issue, and it affects more than national news. Local papers like The Watertown Current, The Brookings Beacon, and The Aberdeen Insider are affected too.
There’s a crucial difference in national news and local news though, and it’s not just that these papers might be less biased and less likely to force a click and a read by manipulating people’s emotions.
There’s a level of discourse here on the local level that simply is not available on the national one.
Local newspapers offer forum space for discussion and discourse, the likes of which might as well be pronounced dead on the national level. How’s that for manipulating your emotions?
While this forum might not be considered essential by every news source, I’d like to encourage it in our newspaper.
Anybody of any background can write a letter to the editor for The Watertown Current, so long as they are within our coverage area and willing to put their name on it. Being a subscriber is cool but will not affect your letter being published.
We’ve got a recommended word count, 250, but in the name of discourse I’m willing to be flexible so long as that discourse isn’t in competition with some of Stephen King’s word counts.
If you have an opinion on city politics, data centers, artificial intelligence, business in Watertown or Codington County, or even our paper, I’d like to hear it, so long as you are willing to establish and potentially even maintain respectful discourse with anyone who writes a letter in response to yours. We’d like discourse, the likes of which is suited to a newspaper, not Facebook.
We have a short confirmation process that needs to be complete before we run any letter to the editor, and it’s a simple phone call where I ask you if you wrote the letter and are still willing to publish it.
This sort of positive engagement might not draw back the people my age immediately, but allowing them a voice on the local level and showing them it’s valued enough to be printed, read and responded to, when that same voice, arguably, has been erased on the national level is vindicating. Yes, their voice on the national level may still feel like it will fall on deaf ears, but it won’t in The Watertown Current. It’s time for Watertown to extend a hand to the people like me who are burnt out on national news.
We can show them what they think doesn’t fall on deaf ears.
Letters are due to [email protected] by noon on Mondays, or if you’re not the email type, come see us at 13 Second St. SE, in downtown Watertown with a legible copy of your letter. We may edit your letter for typos, grammar and clarity. Beyond writing concisely, all you have to do is include your name, phone number, and town of residence (not your address). Please don’t try to sell anything other than opinions in your letters. Letters that do so, will not be published.
Oh…
Did I mention it’s also free to write us a letter?
