Our Turn: A new opinion-based feature on PeeDeePost.com which goes nicely with its counterpart, Your Turn. The two forums offer staff at The Pee Dee Post and its readers the forums needed to write in about issues of the day.
Our first Our Turn addresses a post on PeeDeePost.com’s Facebook page that pointed out some differences in timely reporting between PeeDeePost.com and “that other paper” two blocks down East Washington Street.
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It almost feels as if we are locked in a race for public office. The “we,” to which I refer includes The Pee DeePost and the Richmond County Daily Journal. After all, both entities are seeking, instead of votes, the eyes of readers, as well as the financial support of advertisers.
Late Wednesday afternoon, I posted on the PeeDeePost.com Facebook page about three stories the Post had 24 or more hours before the Journal. This was the second time in about two months I’ve commented in that forum about how we have reported a handful of items before the “other paper” that has four full-time news/sports staff members and a fifth three-quarter employee. The Post? Only one.
I also questioned the fairness of the Journal’s practice of publishing its stories online — which are available for free — some 12 to 15 hours before the print subscribers who pay for the information can read it in the next day’s printed edition.
Most of the 18-plus comments were very supportive of the Post in general, and especially so when comparing PeeDeePost.com to the Journal. I was grateful. But in between praise, Raymond Turner wrote: “It’s sad to have to compare yourself to ‘that other paper’ to make yourself feel better, or to promote your own self. Is this post really needed? … I find your site interesting, and no doubt better than ‘that other paper,’ but posts like these are just childish.”
To answer Mr. Turner’s question of whether or not it’s needed, I say, “yes and no.”
The case for “Yes”
Newspapering is a business, and we’re engaged in an effort to seek wider support of readers and advertisers alike. I feel we’ll be successful in garnering additional support from both elements if we are successful in reporting the news in a timely and accurate manner.
And when we beat that other paper on issues, so much the better. Quite frankly, we shouldn’t beat them. They have five times the manpower. When we do beat them on a story, it begs the question, with a staff nearly five times what the Post has, why the Post would beat the Journal at anything. But we do, and we do so on a regular basis.
My full-time job includes two primary elements. First, to report the news as it happens to the benefit of readers. I shouldn’t assume that even the most loyal PeeDeePost.com readers are comparing the two outlets on a regular basis and noticing what stories we report first.
Second, it’s to build the locally owned business of PeeDeePost.com. I live here, my family lives here, my children go to school here, we all play here, and any profit made here will stay here — and not to line the pockets of bigwigs in Lumberton, Davidson or Miamisburg, Ohio as in the case of the profits from the Daily Journal that are directed not to the local people who staff the paper but to the corporate bigwigs running the show from the Journal’s parent company, Civitas Media.
The case for “No”
My job isn’t to beat them. It is, as previously stated, to report the news in a timely and accurate manner. It’s also my job to return to true community journalism. While some outside voices chime in on parenting or other opinion-based topics, 98 percent of the content on PeeDeePost.com is Richmond County-centric. That’s not the case with “that other paper.”
Another point: Quite frankly, I underestimated the ability of our readers to see the different approaches between the two. I figured I was one of the few paying attention to what each paper, online or in print, was doing. That’s not the case. A very large number of PeeDeePost.com readers also are paying attention to what “that other paper” is, or often isn’t, doing.
The Pee Dee Post covered the Special Olympics. We were there for Buddy Roe’s annual bike ride. We were there for the Vickie Butler Memorial Cornhole Tournament. We were there for two of the three days of the national lawn mower racing event in Ellerbe. We were there opening day of the Hot Mamas Softball League.
We were there at the ribbon-cutting for Hitchcock Creek. We were first to go to Troy to report on the four local teams competing the district all-star youth softball tournament. We were there for opening night of “Fences” at Richmond Community Theatre. We didn’t just report on the fact that the city of Hamlet wants to renovate and restore the old Opera House, we went to tour the facility, took a bunch of photos and detailed the plan as well as readers could be served.
Though a staff of one — on the newsroom side, at least — we might not get to everything (yet), but what we do get to, we’ll do so in a timely and accurate manner. And thanks to Mr. Turner’s response, and the numerous comments of support and acknowledgement of many other loyal readers, I now have a better idea of how many people really are paying close attention to both news outlets.
In that case, then, there might be absolutely no need for me to say anything more about the subject.