Editor’s Note: In conjunction with this week’s column, the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County asked the Journal Review to respond to these questions: what would you want local readers to understand about small news operations with their shrinking budgets and staff; what rules of thumb would you give readers on understanding journalistic codes of ethics in reporting, especially how they’ve changed over time and how you apply them for the Journal Review; and how do you personally handle media bias?
The Journal Review, like every newspaper in this country, is working with a smaller staff, fewer pages, and reduced publication cycles. However, the Journal Review continues to successfully adapt to these changes. I believe we are doing better than many other newspapers in communities of our size or larger.
The Journal Review is still offering a printed newspaper five days a week, where many others have reduced their publications to three days a week or less or have moved completely online. Our management team is working hard to maintain and grow our core product for the sake of the community in which we serve.
To do that we stay focused on our community, providing readers with news and sports coverage that they cannot get anywhere else and giving advertisers a valuable tool to reach customers.
A local newspaper’s strength comes from community support. To gain and keep that support, journalists must place the public’s interests ahead of any commercial, political, and personal interests. Journalists must adhere to a professional code of ethics. They need to be honest, courageous, and fair when gathering and reporting information. They must also demonstrate balance and independence.
The journalism code of ethics has not changed, rather what is categorized as journalism and media has been expanded and changed. Not all media adhere to the fundamental principles outlined in the code of ethics, making it difficult for the public to discern the truth.
I can assure our community that the Journal Review will continue to adhere to a journalistic code of ethics on every page, regardless of our staff size, page count, or publication cycle. Retaining and growing the public’s trust and support is paramount to our business and to our community.
Tina McGrady is the Journal Review editor. She may be reached by email at tmcgrady@jrpress.com.
