Sometimes it’s all the news that fits

“All the news that’s fit to print.”

— Adolph S. Ochs,

the owner of The New York Times, 1897

With apologies to the late Aloph Ochs, sometimes it is not quite that simple.

In a nutshell, the reality is that the size of a printed newspaper issue is dependent upon the amount of advertising in each issue, not the amount of news available to be put in it.

So all the news that actually fits is sometimes the real reality.

Recently the question arose as to why The Southeast Sun and Daleville Sun Courier do not randomly print political announcements. Several weeks ago the question was asked why some of the programs at the high school seem to receive inordinately more coverage than others. It has also been asked why we only print felony arrests and not misdemeanor ones.

For the readers who depend on us to be a credible source of local news and for the advertisers who depend on us to connect them with the local community, we assure you that feedback is one of the most important things we can receive from you.

Sometimes that feedback is in the form of compliments, sometimes not.

We appreciate that you care enough to read us and to take the time to let us know what you think. We appreciate that you ask us your questions and give us the opportunity to answer.

Community journalism is, by definition, locally owned, locally focused professional news coverage that features our neighbors in our cities rather than the national or world news. We take the commitment to “community” seriously.

The fact is that with finite space to print articles, some decisions must be made, some parameters must be maintained. Some of those decisions and parameters in place were initiated by the paper’s founder and have continued to serve us well through the decades. Some have been formulated as unique situations arise. Know that all the decisions, however, are local.

The Southeast Sun first rolled off the press May 6, 1982. The Daleville Sun Courier followed on Aug. 13, 1986. Both papers were created by our publisher, the late Howard Quatttlebaum, with the commitment to covering our communities in a professional, responsible and ethical way.

Today our commitment to covering our communities extends to a state of the art website at www.southeastsun.com.

Viewers can click on any of the individual tabs to view news of specific interest as well as aarchived e-editions of both the weekly papers and our special interest publications.

Our mission is to publish a reputable and profitable community newspaper. We believe in the public’s right to know and the right of free speech and press. 

We will not post or publish a story unless we are prepared to stand behind it. At The Southeast Sun and Daleville Sun Courier, we take responsibility for the accuracy of each article we write. We put our names and our email addresses on each article we write.   

We believe that strong community newspapers build strong communities.

With all that said, we continue to sincerely ask: How can we better serve you?

Please send us your ideas, suggestions and comments to [email protected].

Let us know what you would like to see more—or less—of in the coverage of our communities.

Michelle Mann is a staff writer for The Southeast Sun and Daleville Sun-Courier. The opinions of this writer are her own and not the opinion of the paper. She can be reached at (334) 393-2969 or by email at [email protected].