Dayhoff Soundtrack: The column I might have written by Steve Berryman

Friday, January 06, 2012

The column I might have written by Steve Berryman

You could call this one "a parting shot!"

Steven R. Berryman http://mediahooker1.blogspot.com/2012/01/column-i-might-have-written.html

[January 6, 2012 for my blog, MediaHooker.org]

This Friday is an especially strange today for me, separated from an ongoing conversation with readers of The Frederick News-Post. As the new Editorial page editor Cliff Cumber took it upon himself to do away with all weekly columns; my voice has been successfully muted.

Returning the resulting Emails and assimilating the online comments will not be a necessary part of this day.

In its place was a – not so local – column by The Los Angeles Times; not a local citizen-journalist.

In fairness, weekly columnists were offered the opportunity to post up to two columns a month. This arrangement held little comfort for me, as I know that readers want weekly attention to their thought processes, and lose out to random journaling.

Ironically, the Frederick News-Post – a very long standing and award winning paper for it’s size/geographics – is a DAILY newspaper. One would assume that regular contact with readers would be more respected; why do they print a new “Editorial” opinion piece every day?

My argument is simply that the minimum continuity with an audience of readers is once a week. A writer/reader relationship – involving a learning curve – is otherwise impossible. Examples of newspapers with regular weekly columns include: The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Gazette, The Baltimore Sun, and The Examiner.

The impact of having random columns – even with a loose monthly schedule – is exactly like publishing extra letters to the editor every day. My reading says that the paper was already doing that…

And what of the papers approved description of its own column writers, “citizen-journalists?”

Think about it. Quite demeaning, really, as are we not citizens already? Or is this some attempt to set up a firewall between the News-Post corporately and its contract-basis writers?

As for me, a professional writer I was not (as defined by payment for prose) before doing my Friday FNP column. I did write a weekly Monday column – hundreds - for www.TheTentacle.com since 2007; the stable of authors assembled by John Ashbury is certainly a fine association.... http://mediahooker1.blogspot.com/2012/01/column-i-might-have-written.html