Reaching out to the community

Webster's dictionary defines community journalism as, "locally oriented, professional news coverage that typically focuses on city neighborhoods, individual suburbs or small towns, rather than metropolitan, state, national or world news."

Since graduating from college in 2006 and working for two community newspapers, I have strived to do just that.

Since being named the "copy editor" for the Chelsea and Dexter communities in December 2009, I have tried to do just that.

Lately my office has received phone calls from residents often speaking out of anger and frustration about how the newspaper is "no longer local." They also ask, "What is your thinking in regard to what you publish?" or "What happend to the paper?"

The latter question I don't know how to answer, because nothing has "happend" to the newspaper. It's the same newspapers. Well, I take that back.

The Chelsea Standard and Dexter Leader is trying to do more with less. It's no secret that the economy has affected all businesses. Newspapers are no exception. With less revenue from subscriptions, ad sales, etc., there is less money to pay for a larger staff.

And while we are trying to do more with less, we are also trying to evolve with the changing news demographic.

Most of you have read or seen that over the last few months, my reporter Sean Dalton and I have created a presence on Facebook, Twitter and Blogger. We also are adding online videos to supplement our news stories that we post on our Websites, www.chelseastandard.com and www.dexterleader.com on a daily basis.

This is an exciting time for journalists. We are working to bring as much local news as we possibly can on a 24 hour, seven day a week basis. That is a HUGE feat for two people! But it is something we are having fun doing. This is exciting for local community newspapers because instead of waiting for the newspaper to come out once a week, new information and up to date information can be posted on our Website.

Some of you may say this is nothing new and that daily newspapers have been doing this already. Well, this makes your LOCAL newspaper a daily newspaper.

It's frustrating when I hear that events such as Gov. Jennifer Granholm visiting Chelsea took place and our newspaper was not contacted by anyone. It takes both the community and the community newspaper to work together in order to sustain each other.

To this end, Sean and myself have begun taking it upon ourselves to contact local service clubs and religious groups in our communities to request a partnership. After reading our evaluations that Heritage Newspapers printed in our paper earlier this year, we heard that there was a resounding need to report on more Christian groups in Dexter. To this end, Sean launched a speaking tour with local religious leaders to talk with them and determine how the newspaper can work with them.

I plan to meet with local service groups in Chelsea as my time permits. My first meeting is with the Chelsea Kiwanis Club later this month.

The newspaper is reaching out to the community during this exciting transition and we hope that input from the community will continue to make the Dexter Leader and Chelsea Standard the best small town local source of information. And as always, my door is always open, it's just a short drive away.
Happy reading!