The simple answer is we try to write what our audience wants to read. The popularity of every story published is tracked on the Web site. So on Monday morning I can see how popular every story from Sunday’s paper was. Virtually every day the most viewed stories are crime related. The daily police report is one of the most popular. We also talk to readers and the community at large everyday and their feedback supports the statistics. Additionally, audience research tells us crime news is the No. 1 topic of interest in both print and online.
The JT could publish pornography and increase its readership. Do readers click on crime stories because it's what they want? Or because it's what they get? Too often, I suspect, it's the latter.
Yes, it's what we want. Why? It's more important to us now than the economy. The drubbing that the referendum took shows it handily!
ReplyDeleteWith respect
ReplyDeleteI think knowing about crime is what most want to read about so we know what is going on.
Move to the bad area of Racine more every day and you would too.
Of course you could simply choose to hang out inside the Flat Iron mall and keep your head in the sand.
Walk down to 5 corners after dark. Hang out at the corner. of say Frank and 6th St see the drug dealers watch the Whores. People want to know what is going on.
The referendum failed because we want the full 200 officers promised by the Mayor not number games,
we want to know from the Chief of Police what is going on, not little mayor Greg Helding being Mayor Gary Becker's mouth piece on CAR 25.
Newspapers give us crime news for the same reason that TV stations send helicopters to cover car crashes. It's the stuff that Joe Six-Pack would slow down to gawk at if he were driving by.
ReplyDeleteThank God Obama will stop that! No more news from unapproved outlets!
ReplyDeleteAnd what will the Post do if they are removed from that list?
I want to know who does what to anyone illegally. I want names and addresses so I know where it is safe for me to go. I no longer drive MLKing Drive because of a car jacking there. This also helps when you are trying to relocate and don't want to live in a 'bad' area.
ReplyDelete"Bad" things happen anywhere, anytime. When you only look for the "bad" news, you'll miss out on all the "good" news.
ReplyDeleteThis is the reason why I rarely blog on the JT site anymore. It's the same old song and dance now. A blog gets posted about crime and it goes like this-oonsolences to to the family,then somebody pulls out a race card and then all heck breaks loose. No solutions to the problem-just hits for publicity.
ReplyDeleteCrime is newsworthy-people need to know what's going on in their community. But...it would be nice to hear some good news once in awhile.