You really do not know how far you can go until you go there.
Maybe some of you know how to inoculate for foot in mouth disease. I’ve had my flu shot this year but not the much needed FIM vaccine.
Sometimes we need to get angry to begin thinking about something. You can either slam your fist on the table or swear not to pick up this paper again or you ask your neighbor what he thinks and then you light your torches together. The castle is not that far away.
For a newspaper, daisies or torches are welcome and encouraged. After all, columnists are supposed to take their opinion and stick it in the eye of the public, hopefully creating a little controversy and thought.
A column is defined as: “a recurring piece or article in a newspaper, magazine or other publication, where a writer expresses his/her own opinion in [space]allotted to him by the newspaper organization.”
Last week’s Village News generated a little controversy on at least two fronts:
I complained about the building that will be built on the site of a building that collapsed while under construction in 2008. I commented that the neighborhood there just wanted something/anything to fill the space. Apparently I overstated what the neighborhood did or did not want. I heard from some in the neighborhood who said I was wrong and that the Village Green wanted something that would better reflect the small town atmosphere that was promised to be built there. Not a small town apartment complex.
Rick Gray, a lightning rod for controversy, expressed his opinion on gun control. Nowadays, even with the horrific mass shootings in San Bernardino and Paris and a number of other locations leaves gun advocates on one side of the fence and the ban-the-guns group on the other. That column is the coffee table/card games discussion of the moment. Gray has stirred the pot as he usually does. We have a letter opposing Gray’s view in this issue. What could be better?
But there is more than opinion and hard news here. I explained the difference between us and, say, the Chesterfield Observer. We are about people, such as “Life,” “Look” and the “Saturday
Evening Post” were back in the day. That other Chesterfield paper is more like Channel 6 news – madness and mayhem.
I love statistics and this week will end with some:
- Total circulation of community newspapers in U.S. 65.5 million
- Community weekly newspapers with circulation less than 15,000 – 70.3 percent
- Average circulation of community non-daily newspapers – 8,125
- Community newspapers are where discussions are born.
Enjoy this Holiday Issue.
