What’s it like to publish a newspaper?

For the most part, publishing a newspaper in Vicksburg is awesome. Most everyone loves what we do, but, sadly, some people do not love us after we report bad news about them or their family.

Most everyone is appreciative of the newspaper and the effort put into making it happen. Everywhere we go we’re greeted with smiles and usually a compliment of some sort about the reporting. It’s a nice feeling.

Then there are those with hate in their hearts who look for any reason to find fault. We try hard to love them and pick out the constructive parts of their rants while understanding that most times, they haven’t read the story they’re complaining about. They’ve heard someone else’s version of the story or just read a headline and looked at a picture.

We’ve had a couple of those situations this year. One was about chronic wasting disease in deer and the need to have harvested meat tested, especially because of the flood. While the actual number of infected deer found was small, it was enough to cause concern. Sadly, almost no one read that. They saw the picture we put up of an emaciated deer from the flood, went off on that photo and others piled on. None of them, apparently, read the story.

Another was a recent video we published about a young man who faked a suicide attempt. We posted the story to tell the folks blowing up social media (and our phones) that it was a hoax done for a music video, supposedly. Someone looking for an excuse went after us, and others piled on. It was obvious none of them watched the video, but they got their moment of righteous indignation to show their friends. Ironically, they also drove it to be the most watched video on our Facebook page in several months.

We get it, people are busy. Sometimes they just don’t have the few minutes it would take to read a story or watch a video. It’s easier to react to a headline. We always find it interesting that the folks who complain the most stop interacting the moment we put the ball in their court. What would you have done differently? Let us interview you about your take on the situation. How can we contact you to discuss your objections? Complainers don’t respond to those questions and requests. Ever.

In a town this size where everyone knows everyone, it seems nice people would just send a message or drop by and say, “Hey, I’ve got something to discuss with you.” People of good will do things like that.

But, basic psychology informs us that hateful folks only see hate and bad intent in everyone else. If you are a person of good will, you see the good in others.

Despite those who look for an excuse to cause drama at our expense, we really enjoy what we do.

Every day someone is making news, so every day we report that news. Often, the news is something fun and interesting. We take great pleasure in reporting our stories about local folks who do a service for the community. One of the things we try to do is report on the good people who do good things, and reporters Gabrielle Terret and Keith Phillips are all over our good news stories. The stories they do of good things happening in the community far outweigh our crime stories.

But readers are drawn to death and destruction. That is the nature of the news, I guess. No one wants to be in a train wreck but no one can look away. Everyone wants to know why traffic is backed up but they don’t want to discover from a news story their loved one was in that accident. We take great effort to ensure you don’t see your loved one in an accident.

But the bottom line is that it’s wonderful to be a part of an organization with such amazing people who love our community and want to serve it. Just recently, Kami May joined our team to focus on local government and economic development. She’s a great example of our local focus and is proving to be a wonderful new addition.

The stories and places and things we get to do make this so much fun. Just earlier this week, David got to ride the new trolley downtown with the mayor, other local dignitaries and select community individuals.

“That would not have happened if I wasn’t the publisher of the Vicksburg Daily News,” he said. “They invited me because they knew that the word would get out that the trolley was up and running, and people would come downtown to ride the trolley.”

And at the end of the day, that is what we do and what we enjoy the most—getting the news to you so you can know what is going on in Vicksburg—the good and the bad presented as quickly and accurately as we can. We know we’ve changed the way news is presented. As you know, you were getting the corporate version of the news designed to sell ads, now you’re getting the whole story. Don’t kid yourself: If we weren’t publishing the news, the corporate version would take over again and you would, once again, not be in the know.

The Vicksburg Daily News is honored that you come to us to get your news, even when it’s just about a trolley ride. We get to be the news source that lets you know you can help by donating blood to help a little girl with a rare form of cancer. Just last month that family was living their best life and now they are in the fight for a young life. While it is tough to report those stories, we love that the Vicksburg Daily News is there to make sure you get the news about where you can help. While we all personally want to hug that family and give them everything, we also have the duty to report the news. That implied distance is a necessary evil.

2020 is going to be a really big year for the Vicksburg Daily News. We are growing at a rapid rate, and we plan to use that growth to expand how you get the news, because Vicksburg deserves a news source that gives them all the news.

As the group who publishes the Vicksburg Daily News, we want to personally thank you for making us Vicksburg’s largest, most read and most trusted news source. We also want to thank those who try to find fault in everything we do—you keep us on our toes. You are more than welcome to message us on our Facebook page if you want to discuss something we need to improve. We sincerely look forward to hearing from you, and your input is what will help us to be the best news provider we can be.

From all of us at the Vicksburg Daily News, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas, Chag Urim Sameach, happy holidays and may you have the best new year of your life.