Saturday, for the first time in twenty-five years, we’ll be sending you an email.
It won’t be a “special message from our sponsors” or “a unique opportunity for our readers” - we still don’t sell or share your information.
It will be The Outdoor Wire’s first Weekend Edition, a recap of significant news of the past week, a preview of the week ahead, a planning calendar and a longer feature (or two) you can read at your leisure.
For more than two decades I’ve resisted expansion into weekends. Not because I though there wouldn’t be news. News is always happening. My rationale was more selfish.
After a week of writing about the outdoors, I wanted weekends to be spent in the outdoors.
Primarily because our entire editorial staff was singular. If there was a feature, I wrote it. Ditto the news “blurbs,” keeping the calendars up to date, and anything else that needed doing. I needed the weekend, despite the fact mine ended every Saturday night.
Today, The Outdoor Wire is a digital network, a solid group of subject matter experts, editors, and writers. Instead of one voice spread too-thin, we have the collective wisdom of a group of skilled communicators, with decidedly different writing styles and a variety of ages, I believe that’s to everyone’s advantage.
Very early in the news business I learned a simple truth: “None of us is as smart as all of us.”
That’s why old-time newsrooms were magical. Different experiences, different viewpoints, different nationalities, colors, genders, etc., etc., all guided by the desire to answer seven simple questions: who, what, why, when, where, how, and how much.
Those seven questions, answered honestly - without shading - explained everything from transportation tragedies to political skullduggery.
Today, our newsroom is virtual. I miss the yeasty mix of personalities, the chatter of wire machines and police scanners running constantly in the background. But we have advantages never dreamed of in those days. If we can get to the internet, we can work from anywhere in the world. Smart phones can send everything from written stories and audio actualities to live video. Unfortunately, instantaneous abilities don’t impute intelligence or discernment.
Democratization of media has given megaphones to some who probably needed corks, not amplifiers. Information is distributed to drive “likes” or “clicks” or “followers.”
Answering those seven questions isn’t a concern. They’re obsessed with being in touch, but have nothing to say.
Today, without the constant responsibility of feeding the daily news beast (thanks, team!) I enjoy time to read, consider and absorb the news. That means I like longer looks at things. The longer looks, despite our increasingly shorter attention spans, still helps put life in perspective.
Newspapers realized that long before they became irrelevant. Their Sunday editions were chock full of longer form stories, photo essays, and book reviews. The things that couldn’t be explained in 750-words, inverted pyramid style.
That is not saying we’re going to offer endless scrolling for something of interest inside a lengthy weekend edition.
Weekends are your time. We don’t plan to intrude on it.
We do want to offer a quick look back, a brief glimpse forward and a feature or two for your consideration.
Speaking of the return of our calendar… we need your help with that.
If you have an event that you think deserves regional or national attention, send it to calendar@theoutdoorwire.com. Be sure to include dates, location, and any internet links to the event. We will give it a look and place it in all the appropriate wires.
As always, we’ll keep you posted.
—Jim Shepherd