I recently had the opportunity to speak with the 2003 Greater Tucson Leadership class as part of a print media panel. While most of the folks in the class were very complimentary about The Weekly, a few of the people–surprise, surprise–were less than thrilled about the newspaper you’re reading right now.
Of the handful of people who had a bone to pick, some said they’d aired their grievances with the newspaper in one way or another. However, a couple people said they hadn’t.
With all due respect to those people: That’s not bright at all.
Newspapers–especially those like The Weekly that feature reviews, commentary, brutally honest coverage and, well, some attitude–are bound to piss off people. They’re bound to miss a point of view. And on occasion, they’re bound to make a mistake.
That leads to our lesson for today: If we publish something that you don’t like, let us know. Otherwise, how can we correct those mistakes or shed light on that missed point of view?
And if you just have a beef, we aren’t afraid to share that with our readers. We’ll give as much space as it takes to letters to the editor (and, by the way, Mailbag is one of the most-read sections of the newspaper). In special cases, we’ll even give people essay-length space to vent. We like debate. It’s good for the community.
But if you choose to just sit there and stew without letting us know — well, what good can possibly come from that?
This article appears in Feb 27 – Mar 5, 2003.
