Former Kinston Free Press Managing Editor Blasts KFP's Efforts for Kinston
I haven't seen any information put online by The Free Press, but coming from your newspaper, it would have to be taken as a joke anyway. You've done nothing to get your community prepared for hurricane season.
Well that's not entirely true, is it? You have demonstrated how to evacuate.
Actually, it was the previous ownership of the company that evacuated Kinston. Then you came in and made promises, some of which are on the record on a local radio station, that "your highest priority was to rebuild Kinston." Then you announce some weeks later that Kinston would be going to a weekly print schedule. This was devastating news to a lot of us, but might have been tempered some if you were killing it on the digital side. Editor, you have not been killing it on any side.
And when — not if — Kinston has another hurricane, that management strategy is going to kill you.
Hurricanes are the most important stories you'll ever have in Kinston, not just because of their scope, but because people's lives are literally depending on the information you provide. By the time you decide in New Bern that maybe you ought to send a reporter up there, it will be too late.
What are you going to do when all the main roads in and out of Kinston are flooded? This has happened. What about when Internet and cell service are sketchy at best? Assuming the company isn't going to chopper people in, are you going to try and get here? It sure would be nice to know the area a little better so you could find your way in.
If you can't get in, are you really going to try and cover a major hurricane by phone? Okay. This isn't a knock on our officials whatsoever, but I wouldn't count on being No. 1 on their call list when they've never met you and they're busy.
The reason why you go to all those meetings and events and other stories in person is for moments like this. Those guys (and women) that are on the front line are going to love talking to reporters who aren't afraid to be out there with them.
Kinston might just be a dot on the map to you — at least that's what you've proven you think so far.You might just consider it the home of a barbecue joint and a bathroom stop going to or from the beach.
But Kinston is a good town with good people — and they are survivors. They lost textiles and tobacco at the same time. They took the same economic hits as the rest of the country. And inevitably, once they started to get some good news, another hurricane would come along and set them back.
They are still standing. And they deserve a newspaper willing to stand with them.
If this latest incarnation of the newspaper fails, it won't be because of the economy or Trump, or even Hunter Biden's laptop. It won't be because another, stronger, digital effort beat you. It will fail because you let it happen.
Jennifer Shrader
KFP alumni 1997-2002, 2013-2016
Note: Jennifer Shrader sent this letter to the editor to both the Kinston Free Press and Neuse News.
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