Local news is the heartbeat of the Columbia Basin Herald

I had an interesting conversation with a woman the other day. This particular conversation struck me as a bit odd because she thought the Herald used too much news from the wire services.

What I’ve discovered over the years is that once people discover you write for a newspaper, they have this sudden urge to weigh in on everything they know about the industry.

I doubt people drive by the construction site and feel the need to tell the guy on the back hoe he’s doing it all wrong. They certainly don’t voice enough input to their local congressmen or legislative decisions.

But everybody has an opinion on the newspaper.

I’ve always believed that responsible community reporting starts at home with city news, then county, state then region. If I want to know about Seattle, I’ll pick up a Seattle Times. If I want to know about Moses Lake, I read the Columbia Basin Herald.

I’ve been in town a couple of months now and have a pretty good idea of what community journalism is all about.

I understand the Herald newsroom is a small staff of five reporters, but the news-generating capabilities is as impressive as any I’ve seen. The job requirement calls for between two to three stories a day, a video a week and we all shoot our own photographs. I went back and looked to see the ratio of local stories to wire stuff and a lot of times there’s 15-16 local stories ranging from local news, Grant County government decisions to police and fire reports to business needs or human interest pieces. Most of it’s not Pulitzer material, but if it makes a bulletin board at work or grandma’s refrigerator, it’s all good.

Unless Air Force One crashes into the lake, the front page is always dedicated to top news stories from Moses Lake or Grant County. Local photos, local news is at the center of the news cycle every day.

Of course there’s news from the West side, news from Spokane. There’s also that trivial stuff called the Stock Market report or the presidential election. Wire is what they use to hold the hay bales together. Yeah, we use a little here because of the people’s right to know, but for the most part, the Herald works from the center out.

In this day and age where news is typed with your thumbs and sent out into cyberspace without regard to accuracy or candor, it is refreshing to hear the heartbeat of Grant County pounding loud and clear on the printed page or the online product.

Rodney Harwood covers business and sports for the Columbia Basin Herald.