Writing is best done by people who care, rather than journalists who deliver content with as much vibrancy as the electronic voice of an ATM machine…

Compare a newspaper today with one dated in 1975 and I doubt you’ll find much difference.

Radio learned early on to adapt, and has continued to do so. Have you noticed that most radio shows are now hosted by tag teams of two or three? Listen to The Edge 94.2FM and MoreFm 91.8FM – it’s because they understand that people don’t like being spoken to… they prefer to feel like participants in a conversation.

Even many television shows are informal and conversational. It’s one of the reasons why Twitter is so effective – yet newspapers who are ‘tweeting’ still use the medium to ‘broadcast’ headlines. It’s like being shouted at.

The reason is journalists think they know what’s best when it comes to news and they are not open to advice (heads too deep in the sand).

Admittedly, the online teams do a far better job than their print counterparts because content is brief and punchy.

Bear with me as I attempt to back-up my opinion on this

I get the Rodney Times and occasionally the North Shore Times Advertiser. I’ve always thought the Rodney Times does a far better job than it’s North Shore sister paper, but mostly both still just make good paper for puppy poo.

So, anyway I retrieved a recent unopened edition of the Rodney Times from the paper recycling with the idea of having a close look at what they do -- to see if I should revise my attitude for this blog.

The lead is a 3,500 word story about the homeless in Madagascar, all based on hearsay. 3,500 words?! Madagascar?! Isn’t this supposed to be a local community newspaper?

I only discover in the fourth paragraph that it’s about the work of a local fire fighter there. Frankly, by then you’ve lost me. What’s the relevance to me? How does this affect my life? What can I do? Too long, too boring…

I’m not cold hearted, but like most people, I just have too many high pressure demands on my attention.

Flipping through the newspaper… The editor Pat Booth gets a ton of black ink – half a page – something about experts, ageism and Blackberries. He lost me in the first paragraph. What a waste of space.

A story about dragon boat champs looked local and relevant, but the photos were small and there were just screeds of black ink that scared me away.

Headline: Fonterra payout (really? Saw it already in the New Zealand Herald); Headline: Timely flu jab (really? Read it on an advert over the urinal at Albany Mega Centre).

Headline: A snowboarder with a difference. A huge picture of two smiling faces, when there was so much potential for action shots! The headline told me nothing either. Didn’t read it.

Then there was a clutch of advertorials so badly written by journalists who couldn’t give a toss because they would rather be out covering real news (never mind that those advertorials pay their wages).

After taking another longer, closer look at the Rodney Times, I’m happy with my decision to take it straight from letterbox to puppy toilet.

I always advise my clients. If you are going to take an advertorial out in the newspaper, don’t touch a staff writer with a barge pole, because they don’t care.

Write it yourself – at least you care.

And that is my fundamental point. The Rodney Times story on Madagascar would have been far more powerful and gritty if the fire fighter had been left to tell it himself (with a helping hand from the editor).

People will read what you have to say if you care about what you’re saying because emotion adds vibrancy and passion – most journalists are just looking for the next headline. Unless they engage better with people -- people are the story -- they will soon become completely irrelevant.

Photo by graur codrin