Local newspaper articles about Scouts

[gwd-scouter]

The local newspapers in our District are very supportive of Scouting. We also have a local news website. All publish every picture and article sent in by our Packs and Troops. About once a week the papers and website have an article about Scouts at camp, Scouts helping the community, a new Eagle, etc. They will also print informational items such as roundtable meetings, pinewood derby, scouting for food, leader training. All this helps tremendously in spreading the word about Scouting in our community.

 

I'm curious - how supportive are the local papers in your areas?

 

 

[Lisabob]

We're very lucky. The fellow that runs the biggest newspaper in our county/district is also a past district chair and big supporter of scouting.

[shortridge]

In my county, there are seven local, weekly newspapers. Only one regularly publishes Scouting writeups submitted by a local troop. All the papers run a ton of community news items - business openings, knitters' guild meetings, library programs, Lions Club service projects - so my assumption is the other units simply don't bother to send them in.

 

That's unfortunate, especially since newspapers these days are more desperate than ever to fill their pages. Ad revenues are shrinking and staffs are being cut, so there are fewer people to do roughly the same amount of work.

 

A local editor will be extremely grateful for a Scout unit that supplies timely, regular, well-written items (via e-mail, not in hard copy form requiring retyping), action photos (not just grip-and-grin shots), proper photo captions (people clearly identified) and contact information.

 

- shortridge (a newspaper reporter in my other life)

[skeptic]

Would be great if that were the case in Southern California. Even pre-typed in doc format has much chance of showing up in print, especially if it is about something already occurred like Eagle dinners, or annual meetings. At least we can post on-line now to a blog; but it is not the same.

 

Oh well, what can you do but keep trying.

[eagle90]

Our local suburban papers are poor. In the past they have not run photos and articles at all, run them AFTER the event, their reporter/photographer failed to show up for an appointment, and for our recent Pancake Breakfast they ran our picture with the copy from another troop's unrelated event! They also usually get names wrong or misspelled. We keep trying, but it seems like a useless battle.

[MichaelOA]

The only thing I've seen in our newspaper about the boyscouts is well, not been the best news. It was a couple of administration issues at our council's local boyscout camp, some inappropriate things, and some bad decisions. (Southern California)

[shortridge]

A lot of it has to do with how local (and large) your newspapers are. Once you get above the 30,000-circulation level, you tend to see less community coverage and more broader regional coverage. A lot of larger metro-area papers have zoned editions - a Local or Neighborhoods section for a particular county - but those are going the way of the dodo.

 

One thing that works in a Scout group's favor is that weekly papers, which tend to have the most intensely local focus, are also the most widely read. Just make sure to get your stuff in well in advance.

[HobcawChaos]

Our local newspaper is very supportive of scouting - both BSA and GSUSA. They run almost everything we submit and love pictures. Speaking for GS, the Service Area has a committee position for Public Relations. She has fostered strong relationships with the paper editors that have really helped. Next month they are doing a "How the Cookie Crumbles" feature on GS service projects in the community to kick off cookie season. There website seems to be down right now but it is www.moultrienews.com.