Thursday evening as I was pulling out of the parking lot of The Covington News, I was met with reader feedback from one of my co-workers. I was told local residents believed the newspaper I work for is the reason Newton County has a bad reputation. I was also told the newspaper I work for was scaring people away from visiting this town I’ve grown to love. 

My initial reaction was one of anger. I was angry that fingers were being pointed at us. I was angry that I can’t explain how journalistic decisions are made to every resident and visitor of Newton County. I was angry that they didn’t understand. 

As I drove home, I thought about it more. I couldn’t get it out of my head. How could I help them understand?

That’s when I reached out on Twitter (If you’re not following me, you totally should. Just search @JackieG1991) to my fellow journalists and anyone else willing to listen. I asked how to get over that perception. 

I got a good amount of feedback. Whether it was from community members, my college journalism adviser or Sports Editor Gabriel Stovall (You can also follow him on Twitter at @GabrielStovall1), the feedback was similar: balanced coverage is key. 

So then I thought to myself, “Self, what has been posted on covnews.com today? Would it be considered balanced coverage?” I started to look back. 

On Thursday, nine stories were posted to our website. Those nine stories can be broken down into these categories: two sports stories, one election-related story, three local government stories, one crime-related story and two education-related stories. In my opinion, that is a very balanced news day. We covered as many bases as we could. 

Then, I started to look at the number of people who visited our website on Thursday. What was everyone looking at? According to our website data, the top 10 links visited Thursday were: five crime-related stories (published that day and previous days), three education-related stories, one statewide press release and the homepage of our website rounds it out to make 10. More than 50 percent of our website visitors Thursday were looking at stories from the crime section of our website. 

I can’t tell you what to read. I can, however, tell you the trends we see in the business of selling newspapers. The phrase “Sex sells” is not just limited to movie posters and television advertisements. “Sexy” stories sell newspapers as well. Stories that are filled with scandal and mystery make people put their four quarters in the machine on Sunday morning more than stories about our local government or a community do-gooder. It is a fact. 

Do I want to write the story of a murder that took place down the road from my office or the burglary that took place at the same station I pumped my gas the night before? Absolutely not; I hope I never have to do that again. I can’t, however, ignore that it happened and move on with my life. 

I am in the business of figuring out what you want to read. I am in the business of informing you, our reader, what is going on in your community. How do I decide what story is worth the valuable time of my staff and I? I look at what you’re reading. If I post a story to the website and no one looks at it, what makes you think I am going to post something similar again? If I put something on the front page and no one buys it, what makes you think I am going to do that again?

Yes, there are some stories we absolutely have to tell. We will continue to tell those stories no matter how many people read them. The rest of them, that’s up to you. 

Jackie Gutknecht is the managing editor of The Covington News. She can be reached at jgutknecht@covnews.com or 770-786-1409. Twitter: @JackieG1991