I’ve written about this before but possibly with too many curse words. I’ll bring this rant down a notch from past complaints. The fine folks at The Valley News were out interviewing people and taking photos of the cabin next to mine that caught fire on Tuesday. They were out there for a few hours and their camera guy managed to get kicked off the property by fire fighters. The photographer, Jason Johns managed to snap this photo.
It wasn’t too bad of a photo given the fact that he maybe had the chance to snap one or two before leaving. I heard about this incident from my neighbors and sent an email to mfrank@vnews.com with a tip that I took some photos and was a resident of the adjacent cabin and would like to share a few of my photos at no cost and just a photo credit would suffice. I’d always be available to offer a quote as to how the fire started with info about the owners.
crickets….
The following morning, I see the story is a front page news piece in our local paper with a photo that’s poorly cropped and a few degrees off center and a line in the piece that said, “As of last night, a cause had not been determined.”
Actually, the cause was determined pretty much 15 minutes after the smoke went out over my lawn, a wood stove issue is the cause. Perhaps there is an editorial law to only quote causes until it comes from the fire Marshall but aside from an “official determination” from the firemen, the cause was a wood stove. You have 5 residents of the property who can confirm that.
I sent an email to Katie Beth Ryan (kbryan@vnews.com) who is the writer of the piece and was seen running around my front yard for over an hour. It turns out that Katie is also a contributor to New Hampshire Public Radio as a journalist. I couldn’t find much else on her. After 26 hours of sending an email
crickets…
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It’s disappointing that a newspaper with a distribution in only 250 upper valley stores and a readership that can’t exceed 5-10 thousand is too busy to respond to a citizen on two occasions offering assistance. I wasn’t asking for payment or a hand out or a free subscription to their paper that never exceeds more than 10 stories each day. I was simply offering help.
It’s not that no one bothered to take my help, it’s that no one at Valley News responded with, “thanks for reaching out but we have the story now. Sorry about that fire and hope everything is okay.”
No response at all. It’s a larger issue that I’ve been rallying for is that I end every day with zero emails in my inbox and a newspaper in a small town should have the same goal. Ignoring two emails from a citizen affected by the fire that took place on the property he lives on is simply rude and inconsiderate.
To Katie and “mfrank”, please do a better job listening to citizens and their issues than simply publishing them. Failure to give back or at least act like you care is only a sign that you don’t care. I expected a bit more “love” from a local paper. I know it’s never a good idea to pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel but I’m going to guess that they’re not using that much ink.
PS – About that photography I republished, they have this to say on their website, “PERMISSION IS REQUIRED to reproduce Valley News photographs.” Supposedly, I have to contact them in writing. Well, I credited the photographer which is my primary concern and if Valley news would like to reach out to me for removal of the photograph, I welcome it because, until now, I’m only hearing crickets.
-Adam Jackson
Resident: Canaan, New Hampshire