Blogs are really something to savor.
I can’t tell you how energized I feel after feeding on a great one. My temptation is to shout, “eat your heart out newspaper people.”
Instead of pontificating over why you hold the key to the holy grail of communication or editorializing that the rest of the world has gone mad by not paying homage to you (not buying your papers, advertising in them, supporting your advertisers, not doing what you say do in your opinion columns or keeping the bucks flowing for your owners, top brass and employees) you should be watching and learning from a world that is leaving you in the digital dust (yes, I know you’re going digital and we should laud and applaud you, but where is the Jack be nimble, Jack be quick part? Young generations who think newspapers were used for dinosaurs to pee on, are eating your lunch).
Stop: I also know I made one big ass sentence on purpose, newspaper people.
Newspaper people everywhere … start by reading the blogs of your former readers, the few that you have left and the ones you don’t have and never will, as well as the ones written by some of your hipper, innovative employees.
Yep, really read them instead of just knee-jerk discounting them because they are not written by your hand (or fingers on your keyboard).
Get past your shallow notions that only journalists can communicate. This is a “we the people” kind of place we live in and it’s our thoughts and the freedom to have and express our thoughts that is the power source of our nation.
So, quit wallowing in your self pity.
Quit wasting your space with woe-is-me articles.
Quit chopping down trees to make your opinions appear in big type that takes on the look and feel of the gospel.
Quit discounting our blogs because they’re not yours.
Get past the typos, misspellings, grammatical errors, wrong words or syntax choices and get to the meaning.
It’s all about people having the freedom and the place to say how they feel, what they stand for and a place to try and figure out what’s up. It is a messy, sloppy wonderful place where good and bad, right and wrong, wonderful and not so wonderful, happy and sad come together in what can only be described a delicious communication stew served up 24.7.365.
And, we all have a chance to not only taste it, but make it. Newspaper people, you probably think that too many cooks spoil the broth. Come on … the same people that are cooking up a wonder are the same people that cooked up this country to begin with.
There have been days when the taste hasn’t been to our liking, but somehow, some way, together, we have continued to try to cook up something better and better.
FACT: most of have done it without the benefit of journalism degrees.
So, in order to justify the title of my blog, blogs are just the tip of the iceberg. They make you think. They teach. They stir the creative juices. And, they are teaching us all how to communicate better.
Stop: I have spent a career as a creative guy and a verbal communicator. Thanks to spell check, I am now a guy who is not afraid to show my hand with the written word. And, my spelling, whether this blog shows it or not, is getting better.
Blogs entice us to come into the kitchen and add our spice to the mix. And … they don’t take down trees or ink up the environment to do what they do.
So get with the program, newspaper people. Take your talent and get off the high horse. Roll up your sleeves and dig in.
It’s mighty messy, but it’s also mighty tasty. You just can’t get enough of this crazy stuff.
> Tom Laughon
Tom is affectionately known as BIG > at Catch Your Limit
Catch Your Limit
Management Guides & Fish Cleaning Services
> Camps in Tallahassee, Florida and Richmond, Virginia
To learn more, visit www.catchyourlimit.com.