Our approach at the Hutchinson Tribune is pretty straightforward: local news in a local publication that is part of our local community. It has been that way since day one, and readers seem to appreciate it.
We don’t just want the Tribune to be part of the community. We also want the community to be part of the Tribune. We want the pages of the Tribune to be overflowing with local stories, local voices, and local milestones.
One way we are accomplishing this is by publishing columns from community members on our opinion pages. We also run letters from readers under the “Clarion Call” banner. But the community being part of the newspaper doesn’t need to begin and end on the opinion pages.
News releases and tips about possible stories are essential to the newsroom. As much as we want to, we don’t know everything that is going on in our community, and people reaching out to us about possible stories helps us pick up news we might have otherwise missed. We can’t get to everything, but tips and news releases help us cover more of our community’s story.
We want to hear about more than just the news of the day. We also want to help our community members document and celebrate life’s milestones: births, engagements, weddings, major wedding anniversaries, and milestone class reunions—the sorts of things people would clip out and put in a scrapbook or photo album.
Speaking of, scrapbooks and photo albums may seem old-fashioned in our social media-fueled world, but they both deserve to make a comeback, along with physical media more generally. Flipping through a photo album is a fundamentally different experience from scrolling through a social media feed. Writing a note on the back of a photo before putting it in a physical album feels much more personal than typing in the same caption when uploading it online.
These examples are similar to the difference between reading a newspaper and reading news online. We have heard from so many people who appreciate the difference it makes to hold a newspaper in their hands that contains the local news. Many readers have generously shared their copies with friends and family, spreading the word about the new local newspaper.
Social media isn’t forever. Facebook is only 21 years old, and Instagram is only 14. They haven’t been around forever, and they aren’t guaranteed to be around in the future. Other social media platforms, even ones backed by huge companies, have gone out of business, like Vine and Google+.
Even while those websites do remain in operation, it isn’t guaranteed that your photos will be there, or that you will be able to get them. People’s social media accounts get hacked all the time. Sometimes that involves getting locked out of their accounts and losing everything they had posted.
Physical media isn’t a foolproof way to keep your favorite photos and cherished memories safe forever, either. House fires and other disasters happen, after all. But a combination of physical and online photo albums means a single calamity won’t wipe them out.
So start a new photo album or scrapbook, and send the Tribune write-ups on the milestones in your life, or your loved ones’ lives. There may not be room for every birthday, but we’d love to run a story about your grandma’s 100th birthday, your parents’ 50th anniversary, your son’s engagement, or your granddaughter’s birth. We might even be able to find a spot for the photo of the tomato you grew that’s bigger than your head.
You can email submissions to news@hutchtribune.com. We can’t wait to hear from you.
– The Hutchinson Tribune Editorial Board