By Al Cross
Extension professor, University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media
The latest print edition of the Midway Messenger has been distributed to most of our regular locations in Midway. If you can't find a copy, email al.cross@uky.edu or download a PDF of it here. We do a print edition about twice a year, depending on events, at the request of Midway residents.
The edition includes major stories published since the last print edition, in July, and several of them have been updated. It also includes a "Letter from the editor," yours truly, about the future of the Messenger. Following is a major part of it.
I am 65 and would like to do some other things while I still have opportunities. Retirement won't come right away, but it's time to plan. Soon after I realized that the Messenger, which began in 2008, wasn't going to be just a short-term experiment, I knew it needed a succession plan. You don't just start a newspaper for a community and then shut it down because you want to do other things. A newspaper is a big asset to any community, and its proprietor should try to preserve it. That's what I'm trying to do.
My first thought was that the Messenger could become a product of citizen journalism, with Midway residents doing the stories and maintaining the online presence. I'm not sure that's going to happen; I have quietly circulated this idea for three years and haven't had any volunteers. Now I'm asking publicly.
For a town of 1,700, Midway is unusually well served by media; The Woodford Sun does a good job on major events, and has a good Midway correspondent in Vanessa Seitz; the Facebook group Midway Musings has more members than the town has households.
An online survey by our first summer intern, Sarah Ladd (now at the Courier Journal), found that those responding were evenly divided when asked whether they went to Musings or the Messenger for local news. That shows different information tastes; Musings eschews political material, while we relish it.
Another difference in the two is that Musings is a social medium and the Messenger is a news medium. News media offer journalism, which emphasizes facts and has a discipline of verification; social media have little discipline or verification, though Brian Axon does a great job with Musings.
If you want Midway to have its own news medium, with real, independent journalism, I'd like to
talk with you about the future of the Messenger, in which I could stay involved for a while. You may contact me at at Al.Cross@uky.edu, at 859-257-3744, via the Messenger's Facebook page or on Twitter @ruralj.
Extension professor, University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media
The latest print edition of the Midway Messenger has been distributed to most of our regular locations in Midway. If you can't find a copy, email al.cross@uky.edu or download a PDF of it here. We do a print edition about twice a year, depending on events, at the request of Midway residents.
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| Front page of latest Messenger print edition |
I am 65 and would like to do some other things while I still have opportunities. Retirement won't come right away, but it's time to plan. Soon after I realized that the Messenger, which began in 2008, wasn't going to be just a short-term experiment, I knew it needed a succession plan. You don't just start a newspaper for a community and then shut it down because you want to do other things. A newspaper is a big asset to any community, and its proprietor should try to preserve it. That's what I'm trying to do.
My first thought was that the Messenger could become a product of citizen journalism, with Midway residents doing the stories and maintaining the online presence. I'm not sure that's going to happen; I have quietly circulated this idea for three years and haven't had any volunteers. Now I'm asking publicly.
For a town of 1,700, Midway is unusually well served by media; The Woodford Sun does a good job on major events, and has a good Midway correspondent in Vanessa Seitz; the Facebook group Midway Musings has more members than the town has households.
An online survey by our first summer intern, Sarah Ladd (now at the Courier Journal), found that those responding were evenly divided when asked whether they went to Musings or the Messenger for local news. That shows different information tastes; Musings eschews political material, while we relish it.
Another difference in the two is that Musings is a social medium and the Messenger is a news medium. News media offer journalism, which emphasizes facts and has a discipline of verification; social media have little discipline or verification, though Brian Axon does a great job with Musings.
If you want Midway to have its own news medium, with real, independent journalism, I'd like to
talk with you about the future of the Messenger, in which I could stay involved for a while. You may contact me at at Al.Cross@uky.edu, at 859-257-3744, via the Messenger's Facebook page or on Twitter @ruralj.
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