The Town Crier

WHAT IS A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER?

There is nothing quite as uninteresting as warmed-over news. With daily newspapers, radio and television presenting the news as it happens, a weekly newspaper must adopt a different philosophy from these three media if it is to attract and hold readers.

In almost every news story there is a local angle, and it is the job of the "weekly" to extract these angles and present them to the community.

It is almost impossible for a weekly newspaper to get a "scoop". Town news is covered completely and well by the three daily newspapers circulated in Newington. The problem of timing precludes presenting something which happened yesterday to you today, except in rare cases. This paper was printed yesterday. All of the copy had to be ready on Monday-- at the latest Tuesday morning, and in this case a certain number of copy inches had to be saved for a story, and the page that story appears on was printed late.

What, then, should a weekly newspaper do? Many news stories which you have read in the daily papers did not give you background material. If that background material would help you to better understand its application to the local community, that material should be ferreted out and presented to you by your weekly.

Many Newington residents make "news" every day, but, because of the nature of a "news" story, you are perhaps not told as much about those residents as you would like to know.

A weekly, if it does its job, must present -- besides the local angle on general news-- personality pieces features of general interest, and news which would not be news anywhere but in Newington itself.

Although national, state and area happenings are of concern to your editors, local coverage should and must be of prime importance. Much of the advertising which supports this newspaper comes from the community and areas immediately surrounding it.

These advertisers believe that a weekly newspaper can serve our town, and serve it well. We thank them for their confidence.