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MANAGING EXPECTATIONS: In the interest of transparency

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The title of this column is “Managing Expectations” and as I write this, I’m asking myself, “Whose expectations am I managing? Mine or theirs?”

Whew. General manager. I’d ask “who’dathunk it?” except that apparently some of you all have “thunk” it at least once or twice.

There’s a part of me that tells me I have no business being here at the helm, insisting to myself, “But you still have so much to learn!” And to that part of me, I say, “That’s the whole point.”

I believe with my whole heart and soul the day I quit being curious, stop being motivated to learn everything I can about every aspect of this job, internal and external, that’s the day I’m done.

I have to say, though, I love the timing in my life when the announcement was made that I am general manager, because it came after a particularly trying test of my own patience, willpower and fortitude.

I do my level best to keep my personal social media separate from my work. Some of you readers know this already, because you’ve reached out to me via social media with a news tip or coverage request, and I have reminded you of the proper channels: email me at work, or direct message the Quill on the platform you’re using. Or drop by and see me or call me.

The reason I do this is because between personal messages and work messages, my social notifications quickly become difficult to manage, and I am near-guaranteed to miss something important if everything is communicated on my personal channels. If it’s important — and everything you all share with me is important — I don’t want to lose it. Making sure I receive those tips and submissions through the proper channels prevents that from happening.

Now, sometimes there are exceptions. Every Wednesday and Saturday, I try to share the Quill’s front page on my own timelines. Big stories that I don’t want anyone to miss, I’ll share. Weather updates, for sure.

And sometimes, I’ll have conversations with friends in a private chat on social media that involves my work.

I did that a few months ago, and, someone recently tried to make me regret it. But there was nothing to regret. I was in conversation with friends and mentioned we had lost some advertisers and subscribers due to an event we’d covered, and mentioned if they wanted to show up in support of their local paper, there are a few ways to do that.

It was part of a larger conversation, and I will say this: This is normal. We’re always losing — and gaining — subscribers and advertisers.

We get phone calls regularly from upset readers telling us we’re too liberal. And then in the same day, we get phone calls from upset readers telling us we are too conservative. We have calls and emails from parents who want to see more sports coverage, and we have the same from community members who are tired of sports dominating our pages. We have calls and emails from people who want to see more local news coverage, and we have the same from readers who think we don’t cover enough outside of our area.

There’s no making everyone happy, only getting through day by day and putting out a product we know we can be proud of. But one thing I remember former publisher and editor Frank L. Martin III telling me early on in my days at the Quill, paraphrased, was that if you’re making them all mad, you’re doing your job right.

Of course, I don’t want to make everyone who picks up our paper or logs into our website mad. That’s the last thing I want. What I want is to build bridges and bring people together. But people bring their own perspectives to the table and that’s what they’re reading our words through, and I can’t change anything about that. All I can do is just keep putting out the best product that I can.

And to me, that means the news you care about, the news you need to know — the whimsy and the hard stuff and everything in between. It means including all kinds of voices, whether I know them or not, whether I agree with them or not. It means recognizing the woven tapestry of our community is intricate and complicated, delicate and resilient.

Having said all of that, in the interest of transparency, I’d be lying if I said we couldn’t use more support from our community. If you believe in the purpose of community journalism, whatever that means to you, your support helps us ensure that continues to be possible. Advertisers and subscribers make up about equal parts of our revenue, but advertisers won’t buy in unless subscribers do, and subscribers listen to their advertisers a whole lot. Both also want their news. And in order to give you that, we need to pay our own bills and our staff.

This newspaper is a team effort. It’s you and me, your team and my team. We’re in our 122nd year and we have no plans to go anywhere. Business is good. And it could be even better if we had all of our community behind us.

If you’ve got a question or a concept to explore, no matter how tough, share it with me and we’ll consider it together. Send suggested topics to me by email at news@westplainsdailyquill.net; by mail to the West Plains Daily Quill, P.O. Box 110, West Plains, MO 65775; by phone at 417-256-9191; or in person at the Quill office, 205 Washington Ave. Note: I am most available for conversations between 9 a.m. and noon Tuesdays and Fridays, or 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.



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