Newspapers are adapting

The Forum Editorial headline, “Long live newspapers,” followed by the lede, “Newspapers are dying,” meets what many writers hope to achieve, grab reader attention and pull them in. I bought it.

However, it’s incorrect.

Newspapers aren’t dying, they’re adapting. Successful newspapers are. I subscribe to two in print and several electronically.

Print media are the most reliable sources of news (information, facts), but not necessarily opinions.

Having spent my professional career informing and influencing, as a speaker, mainly, supported by writing, today I am becoming more writer than speaker, as a Northwest grad student seeking an MA in English.

Reading The Forum cover to cover every Thursday helps me center on what’s happening in the area. Since Northwest Missouri, where I became a person, is a special place makes the reporting and opinions meaningful.

As as a speaker, helping others become speakers, I was often asked, “How can I influence others?” My reply, “How can you not?”

Every view we express can be influential, a truth too many communicators seem to miss. My ABC model for influencing is the three types of people in your audience: A (Actualized, those who think for themselves), B (Buoyant, those who can be persuaded with reason) and C (Committed, those whose views are set). The opinion page is fodder for all three. Our challenge is whether we are writing to reinforce those who think for themselves and are open to reason. They will carry the day. If not, we are in trouble.

––Gordon Hill

Maryville