The Choices We Make
Last spring, members of the Colby staff met for an entire day in my living room to talk about this magazine. Much of what we shared that day concerned our readers. We exchanged views about what we should be trying to accomplish by publishing this magazine and the factors that drive our decision making. In short, we talked about stories.
Ultimately, any magazine must return to the fundamental truth that readership is the main thing. While people may disagree about the relative "worth" of a particular story, we think most would agree that an unread publication serves no purpose. We do not assume for one moment that our readers will enjoy Colby simply because they attended school here, have children here or are tied to the College in some other way. If Colby is to be worth reading, it must be interesting, affinities aside. Which brings me back to our meeting last spring, smaller versions of which occur during the planning stages for each issue we produce. We ask ourselves, "Will people read it?"
The article about alumni volunteers was the result of alumni suggestions. We were told that although we occasionally feature financial contributors, less attention is given to dedicated Colby supporters whose gifts are measured in time and energy. But our rationale for preparing the article went beyond simply recognizing hard workers; the story had intrinsic interest. Had it fallen short of this second standard, we probably would have suggested an alternative way of honoring volunteers.
We also must try to interpret the tastes and attitudes of our readers when confronted by potentially controversial stories. This issue contains two articles that required serious reflection before we printed them. The first was Sally Baker's depiction of the community reaction and response to the slaying in late January of two nuns at a local convent. We suspected that most of our readers already knew most of the general facts involved because the crime was widely publicized in national media. What our readers probably didn't know, and what we thought they would like to know, was how the murders affected Waterville, and more specifically, Colby. After agonizing over whether our coverage would revive the pain caused by this terrible event, we decided that the story of the community's response was worth telling.
Marc Glass's profiles of Colby's pre-dawn employees created a similar dilemma when one of the subjects of the article, Eustis custodian Pete Johnson, died suddenly a few weeks before we went to press. Should we omit the segment devoted to Pete, scrap the entire piece, or run the article as originally conceived? We decided that, if for no other reason, Pete's endearing personality and dedication to Colby compelled us to print the segment about him. And, on a more personal level, we hoped that the article might serve to honor the memory of a friend we miss.
We hope we made the right calls in both instances. If you feel we didn't, we would like to know. The more you tell us about what you want in Colby, the better job we can do in delivering a publication that engages readers and advances Colby's mission.
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