Years ago the publisher of The Holland Sentinel told our staff that community newspapers need to pass the “refrigerator test.”
“If our stories and photos end up on our readers refrigerators next to lunch schedules, pizza coupons and ‘A’ homework, then we have succeeded,” he said.
“The refrigerator front is a place of honor in a household, it’s the hub of the family and being posted there is, and should be our loftiest goal.”
Gospel truth.
My name is David Fleet and as new editor of The Citizen, your refrigerator front has been established as my goal and the goal of this newspaper. I’d like to meet you. Come down to our office at 12 South St. I’m here 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day except Thursdays. Have coffee and let’s chat.
During my years I’ve earned degrees from both Northwestern Michigan College, Michigan State University and very soon a master’s degree in journalism also from MSU (GO Spartans). In addition, my work history includes a stint as editor at Heritage Newspapers Suburban Flint and Booth Newspapers also in Flint (to name a few).
Yet despite rather hefty “gigs” in both education and the media, what I’ve learned from my two children Samuel, 14, and Hannah, 11, transcends a lifetime worth of knowledge. We all need to view the world from their perspective and listen carefully. Like it or not, it’s soon to be their world so give kids a little input; just because they’re small in stature…they’re not small in common sense, an idiosyncrasy somehow misplaced as we get older.
Anyway, it’s an honor to be here and serve such fine communities. Yet while I have many things to say about this world we live in (and you’ll hear them), I reserve these pages for the residents of our towns and neighborhoods.
Today all the world can be viewed on live television or the Internet, yet what’s happening down the street sometimes escapes the media for the simple reason, “who cares?”
Well we do. It’s our business, it’s our livelihood.
And if any of our stories make it to your “fridge front” have me over for dinner (I’ll bring a dish to pass, yes I can cook) and show me…it’s a great honor.