A Mom & More: There’s more to reporting than the rumor mill

There’s a lot more to putting together a newspaper than what many people think or may see. I know when I was in school and just starting out, there was a lot I had to know that I never even thought about.

Ironically, it was one of those “invisible” tasks I was drawn to in my years in journalism school: page layout. It never occurred to me that there were people that had to decide which item goes where in the paper while making sure everything looks good. When a guest speaker came and spoke about it to one of my classes, that’s when I knew what I wanted to do — for the first time since my childhood dream of being an Olympic gymnast — and sure enough, that’s where I got my start.

I won’t bore you with all the details, but there are some things worth noting.

First off, criticisms sometimes come in or get posted on social media on items of a more breaking nature. Sometimes what we get in the beginning is very little, or seems to come late. That’s especially true in the social media era.

However, we are bound differently in a newsroom than the average social media user. Yes, we see the posts, the “I heard this” or “someone told me” or “I saw on Facebook (or Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, etc.).” However, that’s not information we can go by.

Instead, we have to do our due diligence and take that information to the proper officials for confirmation, additional or sometimes correct details. Sometimes this happens quickly; other times it takes days, weeks or in rare cases — such as the instance in one of the juveniles arrested in Rio Rancho in February in connection with a January homicide that just got announced this week — months to get that official information we can release. Sometimes they never respond.

Additionally, the technology we use to do research will simply decide not to cooperate. And remember, we are human beings with families, hobbies and other commitments; as a small newspaper, we do not have staff available 24/7.

So if it sometimes seems like we’re behind on the rumor mill, please remember we’re working hard to get the official information before you criticize. We are not slacking or being lazy. We just have to go through a more thorough process of vetting the information.

I also wanted to let you know of our publishing timeline. We work hard to keep rrobserver.com as up to date as possible and post the stories when we have them.

The weekly print product begins its process on Monday. That’s when we get or page count and ad placements. The layout process then begins, and Tuesday we finish up the finer details, insert any breaking stories and send to print for distribution Thursday. To our readers who have letters to the editor or community event announcements, it is best to have those items to us by the end of the work day Friday for the following week, and we will work them in as space allows.

I hope, after reading this, you have a better understanding of some of these processes. And remember, support local journalism. It is a vital part of the community.