As regular readers of this paper know, I write an occasional column on topics that I hope you will relate to.
There have been columns about my children as they graduate from high school and college, fall in love and marry. Columns about brothers and sisters whose bonds grow stronger the older we get. Columns about dogs, why we love them and how hard it is to say goodbye.
I write these musing not to impart on you my personal history, but because I hope that sharing my stories give you a bridge to reflect on something similar in your life that allow my words to touch your heart.
While I mostly write about matters of the heart, at times I comment on my role as publisher of The Laker/Lutz News. Writing a column gives me a forum to congratulate and recognize my staff when they receive awards for writing and design, to thank employees for years of service, and to boast when our annual audit reports that our readership scores are better than the year before and top industry norms.
A few weeks back, I deviated from these themes and used my column to explain why we did not cover the shooting at Cobb Theatres/Grove 16 & CineBistro in Wesley Chapel — the story everyone was talking about in our community and across the country.
I wrote that it was not our role to regurgitate news that had been covered by other news outlets 24/7. I said there was little we could add to the discussion of what happened and why, that we all felt horrible that this shooting happened in our community, and because it did, it felt especially personal and haunting.
This column must have resonated with readers because I have received more feedback from it than I have any other column. People still stop me weeks later while I’m out to lunch and at chamber of commerce events to tell me how much they agreed with our decision not to add to the chatter.
And we even got some written response. One reader emailed a few days after the column published with this message:
“Put me down for agreeing with you to give limited coverage to the Cobb shooting. You are entirely correct in stating everything that could be said has already been said. While I don’t say that we should keep our heads in the sand regarding local ‘problems,’ I prefer to read basically all the good and local events happening in my backyard.”
This past week I received a handwritten note from a reader in Lutz.
“Please know how much it meant to our family that you and your staff elected not to run a story on the horrible tragedy that occurred at the Cobb theater. On behalf of our family, who has also been greatly impacted by this tragedy, we thank you. It is not only the Oulson family that is suffering; many families were impacted by this. I just appreciate the fact that you all let other stories take the place of this incident.”
Just as I try to touch readers’ hearts with my column, you touched my heart that you care so much about how we cover (and apparently don’t cover) the news to reach out to me with personal notes and comments.
It gives me confidence about the direction we take with our news coverage. Some days I wonder if our focus on mostly positive stories about people in our community who do amazing things pursuing their hobbies and helping their neighbors is really what you want to read.
Some days I wonder if we’re disappointing you by not reporting more on fatal traffic accidents and who was arrested over the weekend. But then I write a column like the one on the Cobb shooting, and I only hear positive comments. And I check out our news rack at the Publix close to my home on Saturday morning and see that the 200 papers we dropped there Wednesday are all gone.
And I feel good and confident that we are doing a lot of things right, and that you value and appreciate what we do.
Published Feb. 26, 2014.
