Last week at a local service club meeting, where I spoke about the importance of community newspapers, I had the pleasure of dining with members before the business portion of the meeting.
One of those members happens to be a poker buddy of and neighbor to my dad (View Newspaper Group Publisher Wes Smith). While we’re friendly, we’ve never really sat down and had a conversation. Until last week. He shared with me about a trip he and his wife took to Maine and Massachusetts the week prior, which ended with them attending the rainy Michigan State football game at Boston College. He’s a good storyteller, and I enjoyed hearing about his trip, especially their visit to a local Elk’s Club, and the alumni tailgate event they attended. (The game didn’t end well for us Spartys, but my feeling is we all win when there’s a good tailgate). Anyway, the exchange got me thinking about how much I love hearing people tell stories. It’s certainly one of the reasons I became a journalist.

Whether about a great trip, a career path or a family legend — everyone has a story to tell. Storytelling is something we encourage our clients to do each and every day. It’s an important skill that I’ve written about before in this column, citing this from a Harvard Business Review article, “In our information-saturated age, business leaders ‘won’t be heard unless they’re telling stories,’ says Nick Morgan, author of Power Cues and president and founder of Public Words, a communications consulting firm. ‘Facts and figures and all the rational things that we think are important in the business world actually don’t stick in our minds at all,’ he says. But stories create ‘sticky’ memories by attaching emotions to things that happen. That means leaders who can create and share good stories have a powerful advantage over others.”
Stanford Marketing Professor Jennifer Aaker says “stories are remembered up to 22 times more than facts alone.”
As a growing community newspaper group, we know that telling our story is important, which is why I was excited to see the theme for this year’s National Newspaper Week is “Telling Our Stories.”
On now through Oct. 12, this marks the 84th celebration of National Newspaper Week. Since 1940, Newspaper Association Managers has sponsored and supported National Newspaper Week, a week-long promotion of the newspaper industry in the United States and Canada.
One of the stories the group is asking newspaper professionals to tell is the story of why they entered the profession.
As a third generation newspaper professional, family tradition certainly plays a role in why I entered this field. There is ink in my blood, but my drive goes beyond that. I started my first internship at The County Press at just 19-years-old. My first day on the job I was sent to cover a special meeting about a school bus stop being moved. The meeting was packed and even though I was only 19 with very little experience, everyone wanted to talk to me. They wanted to tell me their story. I realized being a journalist gave me access to everyone’s story, no matter what it was, and I loved it.
From meetings to courtrooms to backstage at a Broadway show to small businesses to homes and more, the access and the stories change depending on the situation, and I never take any of it for granted. Both result in the many important roles a journalist and a community newspaper play. A watchdog, a source of entertainment, a marketing resource, a scrap book, a calendar and so much more.
In more than two decades as a journalist my career has evolved and so has View Newspaper Group. Today, I’m proud to work alongside our talented editorial teams that serve readers in 13 counties. Our 21 newspapers across the state have print editions reaching more than 335,000 households each week, plus an additional 500,000 monthly online readers. Started with just one newspaper in 2003, View Newspaper Group is now Michigan’s largest independently owned newspaper company. Our team is dedicated to making connections for our readers and our clients.
We are reminded daily of why the work we do is vital. Sometimes it’s a reader sharing how a column made them smile. Other days it’s a client sharing the success of an ad campaign. Maybe a community member becomes aware of an issue effecting their tax dollars because of a public notice we have published. No matter the reason, we love to hear the stories of how our newspapers make a difference in the communities we serve. This National Newspaper Week, thank you for reading as we continue Telling Our (and Your) Stories.
Do you have a story to tell? I’d love to hear it. Email me at ecaswell@mihomepaper.com.