A college reporter friend of mine recently asked me what I like about working for a newspaper company that specializes in small-town community journalism.

To be honest, when I decided to become a journalist not all that long ago, I shared the same pipe dream every young reporter shares — aspirations of becoming the big-city reporter you see in nearly every television show. I thought I would work on a beat, writing hard-hitting investigative pieces on corruption and crime, digging up dirt on crooked politicians and fighting for the truth some entity or another would keep locked up from the public.

While those ideals are still a huge part of my passion for journalism, I realize now that the reality of community journalism is so much more than that — and I love it.

As journalists, our job is simple: to serve the readers.

Sure, sometimes that means serving as the watchdogs and digging up information on key issues, but more often than not, our job is to talk about the events and circumstances that matter most to our communities.

Because our communities are smaller than the metropolitan cities that larger newspapers serve and we choose to focus primarily on one community per newspaper, our job is to report on what is happening.

We do our best to know the communities we cover intimately, and this often means sharing in the feelings our readers are experiencing — from celebrating the triumphs of a new business or regional championship, to mourning the tragedies of homes ruined by fires or the passing of community members.

It is our privilege to tell your stories, and we want to know about them.

While we do our best to be in as many places as possible in the communities we cover, the fact of the matter is that it is impossible to be everywhere at once, or to know everything that is going on. This is why we need your help.

With the prominence of technology in the average household today, it is easier than ever to share your celebrations, concerns and opinions, and Leader Publications offers a variety of ways to do this.

Readers can submit any of the following through our website, LeaderPub.com, under the “I Want To” section, or simply email them to our editorial staff at news@leaderpub.com:

• Birth, wedding, engagement and anniversary announcements, which publish each Thursday in our Lifestyle pages

• News tips

• Letters to the editor

• Calendar items

• Press releases

• Photos of community events, celebrations, awards, etc.

So, to answer my friend’s question, working for a small paper is every bit as satisfying as writing for a larger metropolitan publication. In fact, I would argue that it is even more satisfying, because the people we write about aren’t just another name in a big city — they’re our friends and neighbors; and when our readers are moved by an event or circumstance, we’re impacted right along with them.

I truly mean it when I say the news that matters to you is exactly what matters to us, and I’m so blessed to get to share those stories.

 

Ambrosia Neldon is the managing editor at Leader Publications. She can be reached by phone at (269) 687-7713, or by email at ambrosia.neldon@leaderpub.com.