Behind the Headlines » You write the news

You write the news

May 12th, 2008 by James Gonser

The stories most often passed over by newspapers are the “small” stories about car washes, community cleanups, little league signups and school plays that are very important to the people involved, but not so much to the statewide readership.

These groups send in their press releases by email or fax to the newsroom in hopes that it will make it in print and draw hordes of people to their event.

We do place many of these types of events on page B-3 every day under the MyCommunities heading, but many more come in then we can possibly print.

As the community news editor at The Honolulu Advertiser, I’m in charge of running our myAdvertiser.com neighborhood Web sites, and I know how important this information is to residents.

To provide a venue for these type of stories, we have created the Get Published online tool. Get Published allows registered users to post their own stories and photos directly on a site covering their community.

We have seven myAdvertiser.com community Web sites: Honolulu (Waikiki to Makiki), Metro Honolulu (Downtown to Kalihi), East Oahu (Kaimuki to Hawaii Kai), Windward Oahu (Waimanalo to Kahuku), Cental Oahu (Mililani to the North Shore), Leeward Oahu (Aiea to Moanalua) and West Oahu (Ewa to Waianae).

As far as I know, we are the only news site in Hawaii that allows readers to directly publish their own stories online.

There is one caveat: we don’t allow advertising or opinion pieces on the sites. They are only for community news.

So, if you are planning a community event, a fundraiser or youth sports signups and want some free publicity, go to our Web site, look for myAdvertiser in the tool bar, click on that and find Get Published.

Then you write the news.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “You write the news”

Doug:
May 13th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
What kind of traffic are those community portions of your site getting? I reckon not much, especially in comparison to the print edition circulation. I guess it’s better than nothing.

How do you decide which events “make the cut” for the print edition, anyway?
James Gonser:
May 13th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Doug,

Thanks for your comment.

It’s true that the traffic on the myAdvertiser Web sites is less then the paid circulation of The Honolulu Advertiser. But these sites are visited by tens of thousands of people every month specifically interested in these communities. Just because you buy a paper doesn’t mean you will read every item published every day. But if a reader goes to one of the community sites, that person is obviously interested in news from that area and is more likely to read stories about their neighborhood.

I would say it is much better than nothing.

“Making the cut” for a print story is how it has always been, the editor for that section - business, news, sports, Island Life, editorial - makes that call based on news value and space in the paper. A person submitting a story for myAdvertiser should also submit their news item to hawaii@honoluluadvertiser.com if they want it considered for print. The difference is they are guaranteed publication online by submitting their story.

I’m proud of these sites and the access it gives regular people to communicate directly with the public. There are hundreds of good examples, but this week we had a story from a non-profit group that is looking for a foster family for a child. It is unlikely we would print a story in the paper about an individual child needing a foster family unless there were unique circumstances, but on myAdvertiser it is a perfect fit and hopefully we will help find that child a home.
Melissa:
May 17th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
May I suggest….a section (or better yet, a free community workshop) on the do’s and don’ts of writing a press release? The sales/marketing guy for a local magazine gave me a press release this week, perplexed as to why no one picked it up in a major way. I was almost in tears (sad, not hysteria) as I tried to rewrite it for him, and at some point I’m going to have to tell him the truth about what was wrong. Ack.
Cin:
May 18th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Hey! The community section is great. The traffic may not be as much as circulation, but who’s to say that the hard copies are being read? There are times I don’t read my hard copy.Here’s how it usually goes: I’m sitting at my computer & a thought pops into my head (when’s that parade? What’s the Mother’s Day Special? Registration deadline?). It’s soooo much faster & easier that getting up and looking for the hard copy! Chances are, I’ll read everything there! And the pictures are much better online that the hard copies are!
Keep up the good work! As more and more people get use to browsing online, they’ll be hitting the coomunity section.
Journalism Wall Street Journal Viewpoint Media Player:
June 27th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Journalism Wall Street Journal Viewpoint Media Player

I didn’t agree with you first, but last paragraph makes sense for me