Thursday, January 12, 2006

Joplin Herald finally hits the mark

It took nine issues, but Wednesday's Joplin Herald finally hit the mark, at least in two areas.
The Herald, which no one has convinced me yet has any reason to exist, finally exhibited a voice with its page-one feature on the return of Macy's to Joplin (Famous Barr at Northpark Mall will soon change its name). The historical references brought back memories for older readers, while editor Debby Woodin's column on the same subject on page two was the first time that her column actually gave readers a reason to stop on page two.
Of course, all of this material would have been better in the pages of the Globe. The rest of the Herald was again filled with interchangeable columns, rehashes from the mother paper and glorified filler material.
***
At the same time, the newspaper that brought about the somewhat hurried creation of The Herald, has been serviceable, but for the most part has simply been a better-looking Herald in some ways.
Sunday's print edition of Joplin Daily was about 50 percent sports, with far too much of that devoted to Thomas Jefferson and McAuley schools. Those schools should definitely receive coverage, but more of the Daily's readers have children in the Joplin R-8 School District or are graduates of that system. Plus, everyone pay taxes into that district.
The same thing applies to the education coverage, which receives short shrift in comparison to sports, a major failing in nearly all newspapers. Sunday's print edition featured question-and-answer sessions with a private school teacher and with a private school student. Again, those schools should be covered, but if this newspaper wants to make an impact, comprehensive coverage of the Joplin R-8 schools is the direction to go.
The columns being featured in the Daily are a mix-and-match assortment with none standing out. None of them were poor, but none of them did anything to give the paper an identity. It appears that the powers-that-be at Liberty are getting in the way of John Hacker's efforts to put out a newspaper with an emphasis on news. There were far too many pictures, and far too little news. The second Joplin Daily, even more than the first, appeared to be a triumph of style over substance. The Daily can only rely on reader dislike of the Globe for so long before it has to establish its own journalistic credentials.
As far as the Joplin Daily website is concerned, the addition of some interactive elements has been helpful, though so far people have not taken advantage of them much as far as I could tell. The Daily has broken a few spot news stories, but it still has not had the kind of news stories that will make it an everyday stop for net surfers.
Even more worrisome for the new publication, I am not hearing any kind of a buzz about the Daily. That won't happen until the Daily establishes an identity of its own, something that cannot be done with a flashy looking newspaper or website or with great looking photos. It has to be done with a series of stories that will make the public stand up and take notice.
And maybe I will be proven wrong, but my guess is that the new publication's editorial approval of a proposal to bring a hockey facility to Joplin is at odds with how most of its readership thinks about that topic. That is the danger when the people in charge (and I am specifically excluding John Hacker from this, because I find it hard to believe that John would take any time out from hunting for news to write an editorial praising the arena proposal) are mostly in their 20s and early 30s and hang around with other people in their 20s and early 30s.
Unfortunately for the newspaper, that mindset, which also is evident in what it chooses to emphasize in its news pages, threatens to derail a promising project.

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:06 AM

    Randy, I agree with your assessment of the JoplinDaily.com. The problem does, indeed, seem to lie with those advising the people behind the scenes. They all seem to have a mindset of SPORTS. In fact, the newspaper should change its name to JoplinSPORTSDaily.com. Sports coverage is way out of balance--so much so that two columns and the editorial were sports related and the other column was not related to any happening in Joplin. (Of course, neither were the other two columns.) It is, however, an attractive publication that is failing to live up to its promises. It still has time, but it desperately needs reporters to dig up news.

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  2. Anonymous10:47 AM

    Can't make a buzz about it if you can't find or get a copy of it.

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  3. Anonymous1:18 PM

    Randy, I was anxiously awaiting your assesment of the "Daily", thinking you would not find fault with their content. Thanks for proving me wrong. We tend to make fun of the television news in our area for not covering any stories, but today as an example, not counting sports, there are three stories and an opinion. That's about 2 minutes on television.
    The website is not reader friendly, especially since there is such little to report. They want to be a big paper with little content.
    If it is "all Joplin, all the time", we sure live in a boring town.
    I agree, they have a long way to go.

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  4. Anonymous8:13 PM

    These spinoff papers and websites are just good marketing. The more shelf space you occupy the greater potential share of the market. I think the Globe may be considering 2 or 3 more papers as we speak.

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  5. Anonymous2:23 AM

    I think the post a couple of back hit the mark and didn't realize it. Joplin is a boring town and there are days where there are simply no major issues to talk about. It's what people here want. They like boring. They vote down annexation and gripe about anything that could help the city become more contemporary and marketable.
    Back away from Joplin and look at this 'city' from a state-wide, even national level. It's pretty boring really. Which is just fine with most people.

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  6. Anonymous6:18 AM

    Joplin Daily has already failed to live up to its pledge of "All Joplin". The Health stories on their web site's main page today are not Joplin stories, (don't we have enough hospitals to keep the reporters busy? they even used stock photos! Even the Globe doesn't resort to that kind of crap!) and they have a whole section of god-awful ARA stories, which are just self-serving PR pieces from companies trying to promote their piss-poor products. And those "Photo Galleries" sure aren't pictures of anything in Joplin that I've ever seen. Damn, that's weak!

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  7. Anonymous7:29 AM

    Today's joplindaily.com feature story is a movie review? I don't call that a Joplin story, and no one cares what this guy thinks! And coverage of a soroptimist meeting? Whoop de do, I don't give a shit about that either. Looks like a high school paper to me. There's a lot more interesting stuff I care about at joplinglobe.com.

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  8. Anonymous11:24 AM

    The Globe writers are obviously too busy protecting their paper by slamming the Daily on the Turner Report to produce any local copy for their paper.

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  9. Anonymous2:32 PM

    As a neutral but interested observer, I can point out that John Hacker appears to have slowed down considerably after a quick start. He and the staff just aren't producing that much news. But then again, how can a staff that small be expected to put out that much news on a daily basis? Man for man, Joplindaily.com is running circles around the Globe, but the Globe's staff is 10 times the size. I'm waiting for Joplindaily.com to find its real niche in Joplin. Maybe it will be school coverage.

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  10. Anonymous3:28 PM

    We live in a boring town. There hasn't been a legitimate big news story to define how the Globe/Herald and Daily will react since the Daily debuted Jan. 1. The Globe's big stories are coming from outside the Daily's coverage area.

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  11. Anonymous4:39 PM

    I've got no love for the Globe and the snobbish attitude of that paper toward the community, but so far Joplin Daily has little to draw in the average Joplin resident. Daily stories from the police beat and features about yarn won't do it for me. Their sports stories appeal to parents of a few players, but not many others. But since they're not seeking subscribers it may make no difference. As long as businesses pay to advertise in a paper that prints and distributes ten or twenty thousand copies (or however many they have) they may succeed in at least paying the bills even if no one reads the thing.

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  12. Anonymous4:43 PM

    And I think a hockey rink is a stupid idea.

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  13. Anonymous11:34 PM

    How many papers has the daily put out? Two? Three, as of this Sunday? Maybe we should allow Mr. Hacker and his team a genuine chance to get their feet going and build up beats/sources (maybe several months or 20 or so paper editions?) -- before Joplin citizens write the paper off as a failure. Its funny. These same Joplin citizens have been moaning about the lack of an alternate source for printed news for years (the local tv stations simply rewrite the morning Globe's scoops). Now we seem to have it. True, while the Globe's staff may be 10 times the size of this new Joplin paper, the Globe also covers 10 times the area, the whole reason many of us grumbled about the lack of Joplin news in the first place. The new paper, as Randy pointed out, probably needs a third "general assignments" beat writer, but schools is where the Globe drops the ball constantly, and its schools where JoplinDaily.com should be able to sting them where it hurts.

    I've liked what I've seen. I'll read a few months more before I make my final decision.

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  14. Anonymous2:06 PM

    The Globe apparently doesn't feel it needs a full-time schools reporter. Jeff Wells was writing about the city and a million other things and now they Andy Ostmeyer who is also an editor covering schools.

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  15. Anonymous3:18 PM

    I am interested in finding an article that was printed in the News Herald on October 29-30, 1999. It was an article about herbs by Helen Kersey. Any idea where I might be able to locate it?

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  16. I would imagine you could get the information by getting in touch with the people at the Joplin Globe since it published the News Herald.

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