Questions You've Raised
Jim Pumarlo welcomes your questions. Click here to submit your question and receive a response.
How can nondaily newspapers compete with daily media and their instantaneous online coverage of the very election campaign issues that we are following but can't print until a week after the event?
The Web provides weekly newspapers the same capability of instantaneous online coverage Đ and not only during election season. The Web ought to be at the forefront of all newspapers in terms of disseminating news. Following that, customize the news to your readers.
Specific to elections, you can tailor your stories to the local issues most important to your readers. Identify these issues at the beginning of election season and use them as a barometer of your coverage. Another opportunity to tailor your coverage Đ and engage your readers - is to enlist a local panel of citizens at the beginning of the election season. These individuals can offer their perspectives on the candidates and the issues at regular intervals. If candidates have a major press conference that generates widespread attention, the local panelists can post their comments on the Web, thus making your coverage both timely and relevant to your audiences.
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Recent Writing
How are you performing? Ask your readers
Categorized under:Publishers' Auxiliary/July 2008
When is the last time readers complained about the accuracy of a story? Or called to say they’re pleased with a story but irritated by a headline? Or found fault with how their ideas and statements were conveyed in a story?
Interviewing candidates: Never a stupid question
Categorized under:Publishers' Auxiliary/May 2008
All editors and reporters likely remember interviewing for their first job. What were the toughest and most meaningful questions – the ones that afforded an opportunity to distinguish you from the other applicants? Which questions prompted a simple “yes” or “no” answer, and which ones gave your prospective boss an inside look of who you are, and what you’d bring to the table?
'Paid' letters raise many questions
Categorized under:Publishers’ Auxiliary/April 2008
A Minnesota newspaper publisher generated national headlines when he started charging 5 cents a word for letters to the editor that endorse a candidate. He was frustrated with the orchestrated letter-writing that has become standard fare among political campaigns - a challenge facing many editors as the 2008 elections approach.
Time to shed brighter light on government proceedings
Categorized under:Distributed as a guest editorial by the Minnesota Newspaper Association in observance of Sunshine Week, March 16-22, 2008
Minnesotans’ everyday lives are affected by the decisions of governing bodies. A school board decides to close a school. A city council sets parameters for business incentives. A county board regulates where feedlots may be located. State legislators debate tax policy.
How to handle candidates’ letter-writing campaigns
Categorized under:The Inlander/ March 1, 2008
Editors take great pride when they know their newspapers are “making a difference.” A strong barometer is the editorial page, and specifically letters to the editor. So why do so many editors stifle the exchange of ideas during the months-long election season?
The volume of letters indeed increases dramatically with orchestrated campaigns. At the same time, letters reflect a basic mission of newspapers: To get people to think and share their ideas.
What They're Saying
Election coverage a must for all papers
Categorized under:Publishers Auxiliary/October 2007
Jim Pumarlo has it right when he says election coverage is “among the most demanding tasks in any newsroom.” That’s true no matter what size newsroom, so his practical guide to covering elections, “Votes and Quotes,” from Marion Street Press, should be a useful addition to most editors’ desks.
Pumarlo encourages consistency, endorsements
Categorized under:The International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors Newsletter/September/October 2007
Whether you believe you’re doing it right or whether you fear you might be doing it wrong, Jim Pumarlo’s latest book “Votes and Quotes” is worth reading if you want to give your readers solid campaign and election news and opinion.
Book endorsements
Categorized under:
Anyone who has edited or published a community newspaper knows the most challenging and, often, agonizing part of the job is dealing with sensitive issues. I dealt with many issues like this during my career as an editor, and wished there was some type of guidance available, not only for the decision to go or not go with the story, but for developing and explaining the policy behind the decision when the inevitable wrath of a few or more readers loomed after the paper hit the newsstands. Now, there is a book that not only advises hometown newspaper editors about the process of handling sensitive stories, but also provides invaluable sample policies that cover everything from delicate subjects such as suicides, to more common content such as weddings and obituaries.
Ken Blum
Black Ink, e-mail Newsletter for Community Papers
Seminar endorsements
Categorized under:
Jim Pumarlo has a knack for bringing newspaper ethics out of the clouds and onto Main Street. He presents real-world ethical issues with great clarity and insight and helps editors and reporters make sound decisions that actually make sense to their readers.
Tom Linthicum
Seminar Associate
American Press Institute
Alexandria, VA
