Commentary by Ron Walters
As some of you know, one of my jobs here at Wrangler News is to extend our reach to the people who haven’t had an opportunity to work with us over the years.
Because we’re really just a three-person operation, getting out to meet new people has, by necessity, often had to be relegated to a back burner.
So with me getting out and around, we have a chance to introduce ourselves and our product to those who may not know what we do and why we’re here.
I frequently find myself discussing the difference between the big dailies and small, home-owned weeklies and bi-weeklies, like us, whose emphasis is their own communities. It’s what many of those big dailies I mentioned earlier refer to as “hyper-local news,” something they try to offer but usually just aren’t set up to do.
That, as it turns out, is what we do best.
We seek out and publish stories about people and events in Tempe and Chandler. They’re usually stories we’ve stumbled onto while talking to our neighbors, going to our neighborhood supermarket or walking our dog around the block.
Of course, we also help bring attention to Tempe and Chandler businesses with what we hope are creative, colorful and well-designed advertisements.
With 20,000 newspapers every two weeks and a following of 45,000-plus readers, based on how newspaper demographers assess readership, we feel that we’re really what the term “hyper local” is all about.Â
And because we’ve been doing this here for almost 30 years, we like to think that our readers enjoy having a way to learn about our schools, clubs, sports teams, churches, local businesses, chambers of commerce and special places like Chandler Center for the Arts, Tempe Center for the Arts, Downtown Chandler, Mill Avenue in Tempe and the many other places that make up the fabric of our home community.
We know, of course, that online news has decreased readership and replaced many large newspapers in America and around the world. TV, radio and the internet announce instant news that is not always good or fun. Some of it, sadly, is what’s come to be known as fake news.
In fact, it seems to me that negative news outnumbers the good news, which is just one more reason that we choose to print content with a different focus—content that we hope will encourage people to have positive feelings about where they live.
There may be something in the words of Rudyard Kipling, who has been quoted as saying:
“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” It’s a quote I choose to interpret to mean stories can have a positive or negative affect on our readers. Words can motivate someone to a higher calling or incite a riot. Words can be pleasant, fun, positive, supportive and motivating. Words can also be negative, critical, mean and degrading.
In our case, an opportunity to find a bit of “hyper local” news right here in our own community helps to bring attention to the greatness of where we live—to inspire us to see the positive side of our community and, when possible, to do our part of help sustain it.
That, I think, is what hyper local news is really about.
Please email or write us with your opinions and ideas, as we are always looking for local stories and things unique to Chandler and Tempe.
