VAN HOY: What’s the point, anyway?

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February 4, 2012

By SHEA VAN HOY shea.vanhoy@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Sat Feb 04, 2012, 09:44 AM EST

The News and Tribune about 10 days ago published an editorial addressing what we believed was a lack of information flowing from New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. to the newspaper concerning events at individual schools.

Basically, this was a follow-up to our call for photo opportunities and story tips from the school system. The fact is we were getting far more from a similar-sized school corporation, Greater Clark County Schools.

Calls came in from parents. “Why aren’t you in our schools as much as you are at Greater Clark?” they asked.

So, when conventional methods did not work, we took to the most powerful move in a newspaper’s playbook — the opinion piece.

There’s a common reason for most every editorial written by newspapers across the world. They are published to elicit an action.

More than any editorial I can remember in my more than six years at the News and Tribune, this got a reaction, and action.

The point was never to call out teachers and principals, who are certainly busy people and maybe didn’t even know of the struggles to learn about activities in certain classrooms.

Regardless, the emails and phone calls have flooded to the newspaper. We’ve learned about — and covered — a learning activity at Mount Tabor where students made robots; a rescheduled corporationwide MLK Day event; a spelling bee at Highland Hills Middle School (see the photo in today’s paper); and have a couple articles and photos in the bag we have yet to publish, including a rundown on Fairmont Elementary School’s Title 1 status. You can read about those in the coming days.

This column is meant to explain the good that can come from what some perceived as a “bad” or “negative” editorial.

I want to thank the teachers, principals and administrator, Fred McWhorter, who have emailed me and other News and Tribune staffers in the past week. I also want to thank ProMedia, who the corporation contracts for promotional matters such as handling the school system’s website and shooting videos.

In a way, they are in the same situation as the paper, as they rely on the schools for information to highlight. I look forward to working with ProMedia as we both highlight successes in New Albany-Floyd County schools.

Because here’s the truth when it comes to media. I can assure you that newspapers, TV and radio will find out about the “bad” stories. People love to call the newspaper to tattle on government agencies, school board members or a business doing wrong.

We get far less calls or emails of praise, but there’s always a spot for that “good” news. We just have to know about it to get it in the paper.

As we noted in the editorial, there’s no way we can get to every event at every school, but we will cover as many as possible. And, if we can’t be there, we will happily run a photo after the fact if those are submitted.

I am happy to report that since the editorial was published, we are getting far more opportunities to do that — and not just at NA-FC, but also at West Clark and Clarksville schools.

Thank you for your help.

Any story ideas, event listings or photos for publication can be sent to newsroom@newsandtribune.com and to me at the email address and phone number listed below.

— Editor Shea Van Hoy can be reached at shea.vanhoy@newsandtribune.com or by phone at 812-206-2130.

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