LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: NEWSPAPERS AREN'T ABOUT WINNING AWARDS, BUT KUDOS ARE NICE

Members of the Southeast Missourian news staff and the paper itself received several awards this weekend at the Missouri Press Association convention in Kansas City. Awards are fun to receive. But, more than that, awards recognize the effort the news staff is making to provide a first-rate news product to readers.

Let's talk about that for a moment.

Among the awards were special recognition for the newspaper's front page, editorials, columnists, family living coverage, young people's coverage, special sections and photos. Also cited were the newspapers general excellence and its community service.

The community service award was for a special project on zero tolerance against drugs. By the way, that project also won the top newspaper award from the Missouri Bar Association, which will hand out its awards next week.

Awards are a source of pride. This is even more the case when newspapers and their staffs are recognized by other newspaper folks. The Missouri Press Association's contest, for example, is judged by journalists from another state press association. In return, several members of the Southeast Missourian staff have served as judges for contests in other states.

Both the entering of contests and the judging of contests help keep us abreast of our industry. Anyone who has judged a newspaper contest also knows this is a good way to pick up ideas that can be put to good use or adapted to provide improvements for readers.

Even though this year's awards from the press association and the bar association are for work done before I became editor, I am pleased as punch for the news staff and its excellent showing. It is obvious readers of the Southeast Missourian are beneficiaries of a fine professional effort on the parts of conscientious and hard-working journalists.

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Just a quick response to an anonymous reader who sent in Page 2 from the Sept. 2 edition of the Southeast Missourian.

This was the day we reported the untimely death of an outstanding Chaffee High School graduate at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The jump of the story (headline: "Death: Chaffee student collapses playing basketball") was very near the headline on my Friday column ("Loss of pet creates void like no other"). The anonymous reader's only comment: "How could you?"

It is regrettable that those two headlines would appear on the same page of the newspaper, because it indicates to readers a certain insensitivity. The loss of a human life, particularly one so promising as young Steven Wayne Goetz, can never, never be compared to the loss of a runaway pet.

Pet owners the world over know how it feels to lose a pet, but I think most of them would agree it is nothing like the death of a loved one.

My apologies.

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Another reader (not anonymous but who didn't want her letter published) wrote to suggest "better coverage of the fine arts offered in this area." An excellent suggestion, and one that is a goal for the coming months.

This letter writer also suggested a daily box listing special community events as a quick reminder. Another excellent suggestion.

We will be working hard to find ways to upgrade our coverage of the arts. And you can look forward to the daily reminder box in the very near future. Thanks so much for caring enough to send along the suggestions.

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Finally, a word of thanks for the response to my appeal last Sunday for more letters to the editor.

There are some pretty dandy letter writers out there, and I heard from several of you. Keep it up.

R. Joe Sullivan is editor of the Southeast Missourian. To make comments or suggestions call 335-6611. Thanks.