jhinkley@thealpenanews.com
It costs money to print newspapers, and, like any business, we care about our bottom lines, so we can invest in our people and the technology, equipment, and services necessary to improve what we have to offer.
But, at their heart, newspapers exist for public service.
A call to public service dragged most of us into this sometimes rotten enterprise. Knowing we’ve made our communities better places in ways big and small makes all the late nights, early mornings, missed special occasions, extra five (or 10 or 20) pounds, coffee addiction, and headache worth it.
That’s why it meant so much to learn this week that the Michigan Associated Press Media Editors had given The News first place in public service for our coronavirus coverage.
My great-grandmother made the world’s best strawberry-rhubarb pie.
She paid me in pie for mowing her lawn on the riding mower out on the acreage, which was fun, and with one of those old-school, motorless, manual mowers up close to the house, which was not.
Great-Grandma Baker’s pie perfectly blended sweet and tart, both the strawberry and rhubarb pulled fresh from the big garden Great-Grandpa Baker worked every day well into his 90s.
I had just one complaint: Great-Grandma often served the pie with too-cold milk that tasted watered-down, with unenjoyable flecks of ice in it. I didn’t want to complain to Great-Grandma, so I complained to my mother one day when Great-Grandma wasn’t around.
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jhinkley@thealpenanews.com
Over the past few years, I’ve dedicated my column to trying to educate readers about journalists and journalism, explaining how and why we do what we do.
One thing I may not have mentioned: Journalists, as a people, are big proponents of literacy, which makes March is Reading Month a bit like Christmas to us.
That’s why we, as an industry, donate to Newspapers in Education, which puts newspapers in classrooms so kids can learn about current events, practice reading, and use the newspaper in various projects.
One of my favorite experiences as a journalist was going back to my old high school as a Battle Creek Enquirer reporter and helping my eighth-grade English teacher and her students with a mock newspaper project.
“Holding on to anger, resentment, and hurt only give you tense muscles, a headache, and a sore jaw from clenching your teeth. Forgiveness gives you back the l