I had a friend recently comment on a Facebook post of mine: “How come you never report on (insert topic here).”
I did what I typically do: I Googled MLive and the topic at hand, and found an article on precisely the topic he asserted we do not write about.
Maybe you are like my friend, wondering why the news media isn’t covering something you want to know about. Maybe you’ve even been critical of the media.
What if I told you that HOW you get your news may be part of the problem?
Social media algorithms, fast-moving news streams, even the news that fits into print on home delivery days – all those things mean you are likely only getting a fraction of the news items in each day’s cycle.
I’m not saying that MLive has everything you’re looking for – in fact, it’s quite the opposite. We have a lot from local news to state news to sports and more, but we don’t have everything. Nor does any other media outlet.
My point is that if you simply watch social media, or trust what you see at the top of search engine returns, you are severely filtering the kind of news you’re going to see. Or if you’re going to see reliably reported news at all.
Just on MLive alone, we have around 4,000 staff-written posts per month, as well as syndicated content, advice columns, horoscopes and more. We have a fast-flowing “river” of news on our home page, but we also have apps for smart phones and tablets, online and printed newspapers and social media feeds.
There are ways to curate and refine what you see based on your interests. You can sign up for one of our scores of topical email newsletters, which range from daily to twice per month.
For example, we have “3@3” newsletters for each of our eight core communities that send the three top stories of each weekday directly to your inbox at 3 p.m. We also have high school sports, breaking news alerts and obituary newsletters for each those communities as well.
Yes, follow the MLive general Facebook account for a wide array of news, but also follow the specific newspaper title where you live – The Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, etc. They’re easy to find using the search box at the top of any social media service.
Last, consider one of our newspapers. I understand the limitations of the printed newspaper, both in days of the week we deliver, how much we can fit into one edition and how deadlines and delivery dictate the timeliness of the news.
That’s why I’ve been promoting the online newspaper we have for each of our eight titles. We publish those all seven days of the week, we can get later news and sports into each day’s edition, and they are packed with bonus content – news, features and more puzzles and games than I can count. And it costs less to subscribe than our traditional printed paper; you can check out our latest subscription offers here.
Although I may have a slight bias toward MLive’s journalism, I also encourage you to read news from a variety of sources, local, state and national.
I have a free community paper in my small town that I scan from cover to cover each week. I also have subscriptions to national news services, magazines and newsletters on a variety of topics. There’s a lot happening in our world and a variety of viewpoints gives us the perspectives we need to be better citizens and make better choices.
Thank you for making MLive one of your choices. Send me a note at editor@mlive.com to let me know what we can do to make it more useful, easier to read and easier to find in your life.
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