On the Side| Brad Hicks

One of the real challenges of editing a newspaper is deciding what goes in, what goes where, and how much space each item receives.

Naturally, there is some thought that goes into it.

Events that draw a large number of people or community interest, items that impact many people, and issues the community ought to ponder all receive higher billing than items which involve fewer people or are more self-serving in nature – not that those self-serving items are bad. For instance, a club having a meeting is great to have in the paper, but it mostly serves the club, not the community at large.

And so, this inexact art – to call it science would be lying – is a weekly decision for small town editors, a daily one for bigger newspapers. 

Take this page for instance, we have a lot of letters this week, and so I had to decide whether the community writing to the community through the paper was of more importance than my musings. And now you know the answer. 

Brad Hicks is the Editor/Publisher of the Red Oak Express. He can be contacted at publisher@redoakexpress.com.