About The Monticello News
I’ll continue, and complete, my ramblings about The Monticello News, your hometown newspaper, this week.
I realized last week that I never got around to explaining why a particular news item is in the paper or why something submitted is left out of the newspaper.
This is how it works. If you have an ad—that means it’s something that is paid for—it’s going in the paper, unless we mess up. Local news is next. Obituaries get high priority, and are accepted after the deadline. However, there’s a limit to everything. We received one obituary about mid-morning last Wednesday. There was no way it would fit in the paper at that point. So, it’s in this week.
Two weeks ago, obituaries were on page 3, instead of the usual page 2. Why? Because they did not come in, and I didn’t know they were coming, until sometime Tuesday.
The paper is built around the paid ads. The ads are placed, then we “work a puzzle” to fit the news and photos in.
If you’re a regular reader,. you know obituaries are usually on page 2, society and church news in on page 3, opinion is on page 4, and sports is in the back of the paper. School news is usually somewhere near the middle, but last week, it worked out to put it on inside back. Like I said, it’s all about the ads.
After the obituaries, probably the next most certain thing is the church and society news. It’s easy to see where that goes. When we receive a 50th anniversary, we want to be sure to get it in. The same with a engagement or wedding. But, if we have two or three of those in one week, and there is time, usually one will wait until the following week.
Then there’s sports and school news…talk about feast or famine. It seems one week, or season, there’s enough stories to fill up two newspapers. The next thing you know we’re hunting stories. I wish we always had too many school stories to choose from and could just pick the best. But, right now that’s not a problem…or challenge should I say. We print most of what we get.
When it comes to non-local, it all depends on space. Sometimes, we have room for a blurb, and you’ve sent a novel. That’s why typically press releases are written with the most important info at the top, so they can be cut by the editor at any point.
Other times, we need to explain in detail…or have lots of space to fill should I say.
Sometimes, important things get left out…like last week I mean to have at least a blurb reminding people of the deadline to register to vote. But I did not. That’s partly me being slack; partly space. I have not mentioned any hunting seasons, although I believe dove season came in the first of September; archery season for deer has been in a couple weeks…stuff like that. Why? There’s enough high school sports to fill up all the space we have. This week, I had hoped to get a crossword puzzle about newspapers in. It’s not going to fit.
And why not add pages…it takes several inches of advertising to go up two pages…you see you can’t go up one, so often it’s a dilemma whether to stay in say, 12, or go to 14. Or stay in 14 like this week, or bump it up to 16. But the bigger it is, more cost is associated. So if you want more news…place more ads!
I said I was going to complete my ramblings this week. Every time I am finishing my column I think of more to say. I’m going to stop though.
Every job has its pluses and minuses. I hope you understand my business more now, and I’d love to learn more about yours…and maybe feature it in these pages. Let me know if you’re interested. Call me at 706-468-6511 or e-mail me at editor@themonticellonews.com.