Finding our place in your multimedia world

(This editorial ran in The News-Banner recently. I couldn't miss an opportunity to self-promote. Especially when someone else does all the work!--jb)




January 18, 2010
By Dave Schultz


What you have in your hands, or (if you’re reading online) on the computer screen in front of you, is a medium. No, the News-Banner is not channeling something from the spiritual world, like the woman on the TV show; the N-B is a means of conveying information.

The plural of medium is media. That’s right, all; we’re the media. We’re as local as you can get, and we’re quite proud of that.

We’re also adapting to a changing world, right in front of your eyes. There is a need to be met, and we’re trying to meet it.

Now. Quickly.

There is no longer a radio station in town — at least, its studios are vacant on Main Street. For that matter, radio news in our regional hub, Fort Wayne, isn’t what it used to be either. Fort Wayne TV stations aren’t going to give you ongoing coverage of a Wells County situation.

You’ve changed, too. You no longer want to wait to find out what’s going on. We’re trying to respond.

We’ve had some interesting events here during the past few weeks, literally within a few feet of each other. There was a gas leak at the corner of Johnson and Walnut streets on Nov. 17 (I will forever remember the photo by Glen Werling) and then the Morrow Block fire eight days ago.

Both times, we were posting information online.

Allow me to give a shout-out to Jerry Battiste right here. He took photos of the fire and reported on what he saw, providing first-hand accounts of the fire, its scope, and what was being done. Mayor Ted Ellis told me he appreciated it; he wanted people to get information from us rather than relying on conversations with their friends, neighbors, or relatives. I know firsthand that those conversations can be misleading; as I was at the scene of the Jan. 9 fire, two young men told me that a kerosene heater had started the fire. That was wrong.

To be honest, we’re still trying to feel our way into things here. Yet our mission is clear: When you want to know what’s going on, the place you need to go is to the News-Banner. Our print edition, for sure; we’re working harder than ever to make our print edition better than ever. We also want you to remember to go to the news-banner.com Web site.

We are professionals at reporting the news. We know who to ask. We know the questions to ask. We know Wells County and what’s important to Wells County. We are accountable to you, our readers — and believe me, you let us know if something got past us or if we didn’t get it right the first time.

If there’s another gas leak, we’ll post it quickly. If there’s another major fire, we’ll post it quickly. (If there’s another gas leak and a major fire at the same time, we may all be running for our lives.)

I’m particularly thinking what will happen if we’re buried under a major blizzard. One of the first major stories of my career, when I was at another newspaper, was being the lead reporter on the 1978 storm. No one had an online option then. Every county seat had its own radio station. That’s no longer the case. And a print edition can only tell you what the situation was at press time; it can’t tell you what the situation is now.

Perhaps we’ll video a report and post it online, updating it every hour or so as warranted. That’s just an idea I have. Jerry, who is our online guy, will — as he did a week ago Sunday — certainly have a hand in on what we do.

We want to be the definitive source of news for Wells County. When you want to know what’s going on, we want to be who you turn to.

Now. Quickly.

by DAVE SCHULTZ
daves@news-banner.com