“Raise your hand if you’ve ever been in the paper”

My boss from 2002 to 2005 — Jeff Wilson, publisher of The Fairfield Ledger — had a question he would always ask when groups of children toured the newspaper offices.

It was this: “How many of you have ever had your name or picture in the paper?”

Usually, about half of the kids in the group raised their hands.

This stuck with me because it seems like such a simple, elegant way of gauging just how close a community news organization is to the community it serves.

Now, I do think that when a person’s name or photo is in the paper, it should have some sort of significance or context — it should be connected to recognition of an achievement, for instance, or coverage of a community event. (Otherwise, we could just publish the phone book.) And, of course, if getting local names in the paper is all we’re focused on, we’ll be missing the boat in other ways.

But in general, I think the closer a news organization is to its community, the more people will be able to raise their hands and say that the coverage reflects not just life in the community, but also their lives on a personal level.

So if you run a community news organization, the next time an elementary school class or Scout troop comes to your office for a tour, why not give this question a try?

How do you think you’ll do?

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