By Don Nelson
If I ever forget, even for a few seconds, that our readers are paying attention and care about what’s in the newspaper, a reminder pops up. Often, it’s more than one.
We, of course, appreciate the compliments. But it’s also important to pay attention to the complaints, or suggestions, or blunt criticisms. Sometimes a question gives us the opportunity to explain how and why we do things.
Recently, a longtime reader and occasional contributor suggested that our Valley Life columnists — the four who write about Winthrop, Mazama, Twisp and the lower valley — aren’t sticking close enough to home but rather are writing about things that have little to do with their respective communities, or straying into ruminative areas. He didn’t like that they are sometimes opinionated, suggesting that such thoughts belong in the opinion pages.
It took me a few days to respond because I didn’t want to blow him off. In my note to him, I said that while the columnists each write from a “neighborhood,” they are independent, distinct voices with the latitude to explore a broad range of topics. If they have an opinion, that’s fine by me.
To be sure, the Valley Life columns have evolved over the years, which is evident if you peruse our back issues. For one thing, the old-fashioned notion of a “gossip” columnist is long gone. In fact, we don’t typically publish gossipy stuff and are cautious about how we treat rumors. All of our columnists are also quite good reporters who check things out and interview people directly. They are good gleaners of information. All of them have also written news or feature stories for us as well, either in the newspaper and/or our special publications.
Another factor is at work: The newspaper is already doing fairly complete coverage of events and happenings in each community in the news columns, to the extent that our news coverage sometimes overlaps with the column topics. I’m OK with that because it gives readers more opportunities to come across the information. It’s not uncommon for the columnists to share breaking news.
And, while each of our columnists is anchored in a specific community, they all are “citizens of the valley,” in my view. They work, recreate and participate in events all over the Methow. Some of them have kids in school, others have a range of interests and activities that go beyond neighborhood happenings. I don’t put up artificial boundaries. I also don’t give the columnists much direction or instruction. I like to be surprised by what they come up with.
Some of your favorite columnists over the years often wrote about topics, or offered personal musings, beyond their communities or even beyond the valley. And they weren’t shy with their opinions. Many of you still miss the fascinating, entertaining ramblings of Sue Misao’s Carlton dispatches, which were often stream-of-consciousness observations that banged around the universe as it related (sometimes, sometimes not) to the lower valley.
Our columnists don’t operate in a vacuum. Each week, their contact information is published on the Valley Life page, and I can assure you that they’d love to hear about news — or gossip if that’s what you’ve got — from their communities.
One other thing I should mention. If you haven’t ever attempted to write a weekly column, you have no idea how hard it is to come up with good ideas and topics on a consistent basis. All of our columnists have jobs and other demands in their lives, so they are writing in what essentially is their spare time.
Another reader recently urged us to report and write about—in much more detail— big, complicated issues at the national, state or regional level that may affect the Methow Valley.
I agree, there are a lot of issues like that out there. But covering them is not our mission unless we can “localize” their impact with meaningful specificity. An example might be how changes in the Affordable Care Act could affect us. Following the national debate is not something we would likely spend time on. We have to be relentlessly local, or we lose the unique value we provide our readers. With our limited resources, it’s all we can do to keep up with the valley’s goings-on. We’ll leave the larger complex issues to the bigger media outlets.
