Search for new and used cars from NH dealers.

Feb162008

Wanted: More Reader Advisory Network Members

Filed under Uncategorized by nick pappas at 6:50 pm

Several weeks ago, when I sat down with my boss to discuss my goals for 2008, I suggested making a more concerted effort to use and expand our Reader Advisory Network this year.

The RAN group, if you aren’t familiar with it, consists of individuals willing to share their e-mail addresses with us in return for the opportunity to play a role with their local newspaper.

Since the first group was recruited in 2003, we have relied on members for their assistance in any number of ways: helping to set policy, participating in national journalism surveys, suggesting questions to ask candidates for public office, participating in a roundtable discussion on bias and credibility at Rivier College, and even serving as sources for news stories when appropriate.

Last summer, for example, I turned to our RAN group for advice on how to handle letters to the editor advocating for candidates in the New Hampshire primary – that is, run them daily, weekly or not at all. (Weekly edged out not-at-all, which is what we did.)

Speaking of the primary, we also solicited e-mail questions from the group and then used at least one of them in most of our editorial board interviews with the candidates.

Looking back, only one of those questions and answers made it into the print news story the next day – David Burgess of Hudson asking Republican Tom Tancredo if the attacks against Iraq and Afghanistan were justified based on 9/11 – but anyone who watched the broadcast versions of our Nashua High School South interviews on www.nhprimary.com would have heard them.

Among other recent uses of the network:

  • In January, reporter David Brooks reached out to members for a story trying to gauge the impact of the presidential primary on, in his words, “their daily quota of junk calls and junk mail.” Among the people who responded was Bob Cutter of Hollis with this practical piece of advice: “I used to tell them I wasn’t interested and hang up the phone, but that doesn’t stop the calls. My new tactic is to tell them what they want to hear: ‘Yes, I’m voting for (your candidate).’ They usually reply with a polite ‘Thank you’ and don’t call back.”
  • Last September, we sought and then reported feedback to the publication of a story four days before the mayoral primary stating that three of the six candidates for mayor once had filed for bankruptcy protection during the 1990s.
  • In March, in conjunction with Sunshine Week – a national initiative dedicated to the cause of open government – I asked members to respond to this question about watchdog journalism: “How important is it to you for your local newspaper to serve as a champion of this kind of public service journalism? If so, why? If not, why not?” A sampling of those responses was published the following month in both the newspaper and on my blog.

It is my hope that this gives you at least a basic idea of what the Reader Advisory Network is all about – and more important, why I hope you will volunteer to join us this year.

Getting back to my goal-setting session with Executive Editor David Solomon, this is what I told him I hoped to accomplish this year:

I would like to double the size of the network from the 125 people who are members today to 250 by the end of the year.

I would like to use the group on a more frequent basis both for news stories and on the opinion pages, no less than once a month.

Finally, I would like to come up with an opinion-page project once each quarter that either responds to something in the news or reflects one of the challenges facing journalism today.

(Hmm. Sharing internal goals with your readers. How’s that for transparency?)

While sales isn’t my forte, I hope I have at least piqued your curiosity enough to sign up as a new member. All you have to do is visit ran.nashuatelegraph.com, fill out the form and hit the submit button at the bottom. You will get an e-mail confirmation to which you must respond in order to become a part of the network.

So what do you say? If not for you, then do it for me.

My next raise might depend on it.

Nick Pappas is editorial page editor of The Telegraph. He can be reached at 594-6505 or npappas@nashuatelegraph.com.

Viewing 7 Comments

close Reblog this comment
Powered by Disqus · Learn more
blog comments powered by Disqus