News is a Conversation

Rebuilding Trust: What Newsrooms Are Doing details several strategies by the Spokesman-Review to restore trust and confidence in its publication.

One new tactic is meeting with the public at a local library to allow readers to give input on the paper's new ethics policy. The following are the most significant suggestions the public made at the last meeting:

-When the facts change materially as a story evolves, we should report the ultimate facts as conspicuously as the original.

-Reporters should not be allowed to bully a source into revealing information, especially when the source is not sophisticated.

-When there is very little new to report in an ongoing story, the paper should not publish extended stories that are mostly rehashing background details.

The suggestion that I got a kick out of most was the one from older readers suggesting that the newspaper "replace its photographs with line drawings and lithographs."

Another feature is The Transparent Newsroom, an online component with 10 blogs and live video streaming of daily newsroom meetings to help the public understand better the work journalism entails. An Ask the Editors facet is also included.

The most significant element that runs through all of these tactics is more reader involvement. Newspapers provide a public service, and it is to our benefit to listen to what our customers want, within reason. Sometimes, it can be hard to balance the interests of readers and the paper. Changing pictures to line drawings would diminish the paper's appearance and hurt the paper's ability to draw readers (especially younger ones, who may or may not be future subscribers) into a story. However, the suggestion that we report facts clearly is an essential part of conveying information successfully. Graphics can aid greatly with this, especially if stories have numbers that could be better displayed in a chart.

As a consumer of news, I also appreciate the Ask the Editor feature. The New York Times often has similar programs. This week, you can ask the graphics editor questions. Once, people could ask reporters in Iraq about their experiences there, which I found particularly informative. This direct communication is helpful since it lets the reader know they are being heard, thus allowing them to build more confidence in what a publication is doing.