A newspaper has produced an edition containing no bad news in what its editor is calling “an attempt to be positive in an otherwise gloomy time for the industry.”
This week’s Bromley News Shopper contained only stories of achievement, success and benevolence in a bid to a smile on readers’ faces.
Stories included a woman who was looked after by strangers after she had an epileptic fit, a disabled toddler who got a new electric wheelchair thanks to a News Shopper campaign and pub regulars who removed temporary traffic lights to save motorists from tailbacks.
There was also a page three special on a the editorial team volunteering to clear a local pond.
Editor Richard Firth said: “We always try to strike a decent balance between the positive and the negative. We’re dropping directly into homes so we have a responsibility to hold people to account but we also don’t want to depress them.
“This week however, we just thought sod it, let’s see if we can produce a wholly positive newspaper. It went much better than I expected it to.
“Luckily, the whole process felt very natural. We didn’t have a murder or anything so there was no manipulation of the news agenda.
“The pond clearing was fantastic – hard work, but very satisfying. That was down to effort but a lot of the success of the edition was down to luck.”
Added Richard: “We’d fundraised for a swimming pool at a local primary school, for example, and Olympic diver Blake Aldridge happened to be in town this week opening it.
“We also got a fantastic story about a chap who started a business cleaning wheelie bins because he’d seen a letter in News Shopper from a woman moaning she never got her bin cleaned. He’s doing very well at it.”
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Oh brilliant. Now try to find a way to engage with the under 30s instead of the over 60s. Is there a weekly newspaper worthy of the name left in the country?
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“News is something someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising.” –Lord Northcliffe
Of course real “news” is difficult to get, involves lots of calls and staff that know what they are doing.
“Good news” is easy, safe and can be written by a junior.
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I’ve known papers to try the ‘good news’ formula before. They always fail.
Readers like controversy. They like to see shysters exposed. They like topics they can chew over in the pub. They actually like bad news.
Of course, positive stories have always been part of the mix. But unless an editor is prepared to take on authority, and write things others wouldn’t dare to, he’s dead in the water.
Ask yourself which of the following headlines would prompt a buying decision:
‘Nine die in mall shooting horror’
‘Schoolkids win spring bloom contest’
Exactly.
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There was also a page three special on a the editorial team volunteering to clear a local pond….. YAWWWNNNN – no wonder they’re all going bust
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Ha ha. As always sooooooooooo much negativity on this comment section. Cheer up people!
This is a nice idea and, as a one-off, is well worth a try. Obviously good journalism is often about exposing wrongdoing and reporting bad news, but not everything has to be doom and gloom.
At the very least it will get people talking (and maybe buying the paper…)
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Oh… and journalism is not a straight choice between ‘Nine die in mall shooting horror’ and ‘Schoolkids win spring bloom contest’.
Quality good news stories can take a lot of work and can be very effective if done well.
Just because you’re a cynic, doesn’t mean every reader is.
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Harold: Local newspapers have never been able to engage the under 30s. No-one bothers with the local paper until they’ve got kids in school, gardens, their own wheelie bins and a sense of belonging in a community. That comes with maturity – and that’s when they start buying the local rag.
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I’m guessing News Shopper is a free paper?
So they could probably take the risk of seeing their readership figures fall off a cliff.
I doubt a paid-for would be quite so…er…adventurous as to leave out all the interesting bits.
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