I had the opportunity to award the original grandparents section an award in the Inland Press Association's special section/new business contest this summer.
What I liked about this section is that it is so obvious and has so many opportunities, especially for this paper in a retirement community in Florida. But this idea – and more importantly this kind of thinking – can be applied at any newspaper.
At Creative Circle, when we redesign newspapers and re-engineer newsrooms, we urge journalists to cover life, not just news. To think about how people spend their day, what they are worried about, what their priorities are in addition to covering beats and government and fires.
People live their lives through weddings and relationships and beauty parlors and restaurants and trips to the beach. Newspapers and newsrooms need to pay more attention to life coverage. And while this is a soft section, there is a lot of news in everyday life, too. We've got to take our blinders off and focus on what our readers care about. We've got to touch their lives and be more relevant not only in what we cover but also in how we cover it.
This section was also great because they did such a good job making their coverage interesting, fun and visual. They had fun with it so the readers will, too. That's something else that is missing from a lot of what journalists do.
Have some fun!
Bill Ostendorf, president, Creative Circle Media Solutions
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