From the Editor This week has been a short week, a slow news week, and a bit of a challenging week. As you will notice, we trimmed down in size slightly, however, never fear… we have a plan. This is making way for the inclusion of our TV guide from next week forward, we had to do some pre trimming to ensure we can get the guide in and still bring you all the news each week. So why a challenging week I hear you ask? I guess it is because we have entered the teens as far as issue numbers go, and like any unruly teenager, we are experiencing things that we haven’t experienced before. As we solidify the business of this paper, we are being challenged when it comes to our editorial principles and the reporting of ‘news’. We have been focused on good news, community news and sports news, as readers of our paper will know, and last week we were faced with having to report on a tragic incident, something we did not do lightly. Here was my take on the matter. I did not know Dr Leonie Geldenhuys. She was not my doctor, and sadly I never got to meet this woman who the community obviously felt so much for. We chose to not try and do an article to ‘cash in’ on the story. We felt that the veracity with which the metropolitan media were chasing down every lead they could (we were contacted by several for photos, and possible contacts for her children) was absolutely out of line. We decided to take a slightly different approach and start a conversation about what others who find themselves in that situation could possibly do to hopefully avoid that tragedy. This offended some people who felt we had not honoured Dr Geldenhuys’ memory and given the story the weight it deserved. This was certainly not our intention and we felt that writing a piece in her memory would actually be the ultimate insult, as we would not be able to speak to her friends, family and colleagues without being just another hungry media
shark. This poses the question though: We know not all news is good news, how much of this do we report? We are certainly not putting images and misleading headlines on our papers just to sell a few more, we give ours away for free, so there is nothing to be gained in doing that. The world in which we live is full of tragedy on a daily basis — you only need to watch the nightly news to see that — but there is always something good to talk about if you look hard enough, and this was the grounding principle on which we founded this paper: Tell the stories that are important to the community, but if it’s bad news, search for the silver lining and never give up until you find one. We are not a tabloid that needs sensationalism to survive. We want to tell the stories that are important to our community, the ones that move us forward and give us hope. This is more than just an editorial policy, it is a life long guiding principle of mine. I never give up. Ever. On another note I am very pleased to see the return of our Lithgow2790 facebook page this week. There were concerns the page may be gone for good, however for now it is back, and we have hopes it will stay. To do our part, we are happy for everyone to
Happy 3rd Birthday Wilbur, love Mum, Dad, Tom & Liv
share our articles from our website http:// villagevoice.net.au on that page or any other for that matter. This weekend will be busy as always, but I want to send a big happy birthday to my 3 year old, William, or more affectionately, Wilbur. We haven’t had any birthday announcements placed in the paper as yet, but it’s my paper so I am throwing one in for myself. Enjoy your weekend, Rich Evans
The Village Voice
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Rich Evans, Editor Email: editor@villagevoice.net.au
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