By Steve Browne 

    Do you want to see your name in the paper?
    Of course you do, almost everybody does. Let’s face it, short of getting star billing in an arrest report, everybody gets a thrill out of seeing their names in print. Enough so that there are people making a good living getting other people’s names in the papers.
    That’s why some of us are writers. I learned in the capitols of a few different countries how quiveringly anxious people are to get written about. It’s a heady feeling to have the rich and powerful show such deference to you, believe me. And yes, I’m aware that this can lead to a certain arrogance.
    And, of course, if it’s your business that’s mentioned, it’s free advertising.
    So how do you go about getting your name in the paper?
    Well to put it crudely, you have to pay. Nothing’s free in this business, you either pay with money, which is advertising, or news, which is what enables us to sell advertising.
    Reader-generated news stories are the lifeblood of newspapers. I couldn’t tell you off-hand how much of our reporting comes from reader tips - but it’s a lot.
    As our editor, Nikki Laine Zinke says, “Reporters are not omniscient.”
    So what’s news?
    To begin with, news is new. It either just happened, or it’s new information about something that happened a while ago but people still care about.
     Second, it has to matter to our readers.
    I recently received notice that the Trans-Canada pipeline has increased gas pressure to the Canadian standard.
    So what difference does this make to the end user?
    None.
    Sorry, not news.
    It’s interesting to me, because I like technical stuff, but it belongs in an industry journal. (I did, however, file the information because it might become relevant to our readers in another context.)    
    The grand opening of a business is news because it lets our readers know about possibilities available to them.
    The fact that a business got a new shipment of widgets and how much they cost is advertising. Suck it up and buy the space, it won’t kill you. You have to spend money to make money.
    Third, it has to be verifiable.
    That doesn’t mean that we have to know it’s true for certain sure, but we must have, at minimum, people in a position to know and willing to go on record, say it is.
    Everybody who watches lawyer shows knows that cops and prosecutors can know for sure that somebody did something, but can’t arrest them because the evidence doesn’t rise to the bar of proof demanded by law, or certain things aren’t admissible under the rules of evidence.
    Likewise, we often know things we can’t print because we don’t have the words of more than one credible source who will consent to be quoted. (And don’t get me started about anonymous sources, that’s a BIG controversy in journalism these days.)
     When I was interning in Washington, somebody from the Draft Condolezza Rice Committee called me and wanted me to do a story.
    “Wow, does Condi want to be drafted?”
    “Oh yes!”
    “So you’re in touch with her?”
    “Well, no.”
    “Uh, so how do you know she wants to be drafted?”
    “Well, we read this article in Newsweek..”
    Not news. Not even good gossip.
    Now, I’m not trying to discourage anyone from passing something along to us. Meetings, community events, fundraisers, volunteer efforts - all of them belong on the community calendar and we really want to hear about them.
    See a car wreck, a fire, somebody get arrested,  - call us ASAP. We even want to hear about people being nice to each other!
    You can also get your name, and the name of your business, in the paper if we need facts or opinions from an expert.
    And, when in doubt, just call us. We’d like to get to know our readers better.
    And if you just want to sound off, don’t forget Letters to the Editor.    

Browne is city reporter for the Valley City Times-Record.