When I started working at The Lincoln County News as a reporter in 2010 and would tell people about my new job, I sometimes got the following question: “Is that full-time?”
“And then some!” I would think.
The question seems to reflect the false idea some people have that nothing, or nothing of interest, happens here.
The truth is, there are always more stories than there is time to cover all the stories.
I also sometimes get the question: “How do you find stories?”
This question is a little bit more complex.
The coverage of local government easily consumes more time than any other endeavor of the news staff.
We cover literally hundreds of meetings a year of boards of selectmen, planning boards, school committees, and various other bodies.
A Lincoln County News reporter is often the only representative of the public at these meetings.
We get it: people are busy. That’s why we go: so you can catch up on the key goings-on in your community when you sit down with the paper each Wednesday or Thursday (or go to our website any time of the week).
Articles about local government are far from our most popular when it comes to views online, but we consider this work a vital part of our mission.
National and state government have countless organizations competing for readers or viewers, but when it comes to local government, if we don’t inform the public, no one will.
Other key categories of what we cover each week include business news; community events like fairs, festivals, and parades; crime and the justice system; and emergencies like car accidents and fires.
All this leaves precious little time to dedicate to anything else, but we still try to find unique “human interest” stories and bring our readers engaging features about our community.
While we never run out of news to report, we also know there’s always something we’re missing.
If you see news in progress or have an idea for an article, let us know.
Of course, we cannot follow up on every tip, and we receive some strange ones.
No, we’re not going to cover your cat’s birthday party. You can send us a picture, though, and we might publish it on our monthly pet page.
We also don’t cover national news, and will politely decline requests to investigate improprieties in connection with either presidential campaign (we did receive such a request recently).
If you have an idea for an article, call 563-3171 and ask for J.W. or email joliver@lcnme.com. If we think you have news, we’ll send someone to cover it.
If you’re going to request coverage of a specific event, it helps to let us know as soon as possible. Please understand that unless there is literally a fire, we will probably need some time to follow up.
The Lincoln County News is a community resource. It’s your newspaper, and you can help shape the news you read in it.
