LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: WEATHER PETS, OTHER WAYS TO MAKE LINKS WITH READERS

Response to the weather pet in the Southeast Missourian has been overwhelming.

With very little prodding, readers by the dozens have submitted photographs of their favorite pets to be featured on the front page of the newspaper.

Last Friday's weather pet, for example, was Lena, a dog belonging to Kitty Jolls of Cape Girardeau, whose name was on Page 2A along with the weather forecasts.

Why a weather pet?

For one thing, running little symbols of sunshine, rain, clouds and wind gets boring. After you have seen the drawing of the sun for the umpteenth time, it is easy not to pay attention.

With the picture of a pet, readers tend to look each day to see the animal and then turn to Page 2A to get more information -- about the pet and about the weather.

Another thing is that the weather pet is just one small way for readers to connect with the newspaper. Instead of news and photographs and comics and opinion and sports and advertising, the newspaper becomes a family album, even if the family member is a pet.

But don't discount the status of pets in families. As a longtime cat owner, I know how animals become a part of your life, an important and emotional part. About a year ago the cat that had been a part of our family for 18 years (other family members insist it was 19) died. It was a real loss for the family. Our sons, for example, can't ever remember when Blackie wasn't around.

It is this kind of attachment that makes the weather pet photos so meaningful to so many of our readers. There is no end in sight of the supply of photos. To all of you who have sent in a cat, dog, bird, goat, horse or other photo: Thank you.

When we started running the weather pet photos, I thought we would get a fair response that would last a couple of months. Then we would move on to something else for the weather photo. But it looks like the pets are going to be with us for awhile.

What else might be featured as the weather art? There are lots of good ideas floating around, but maybe you have one. What about letting youngsters draw weather pictures? What about photos of newborn babies? What about photos of any readers who turn 90 or older on their birthdays?

If you have a good idea for weather art once the pet photos start to thin out, let me know.

There are other ways that let readers connect with their newspaper, of course. One of the most popular in the Southeast Missourian is Speak Out. The diverse and interesting viewpoints, concerns and heartfelt expressions of emotion in Speak Out make it a valuable part of the paper.

Letters to the editor and guest columns are another way to let readers participate in the newspaper. We have had a really good run of letters recently. A couple of locally written guest columns, one by Craig Felzien of Southwestern Bell Telephone and another by Ronald Nall, band director at Central High School, have helped readers' understanding of current issues. Both were well done and provided valuable information.

I ran across one of the best reader-newspaper connections last weekend while attending the Southeast Missouri Press Association annual meeting in Dexter. Millie Wallhausen of the Charleston Enterprise-Courier was showing off the beautiful color photo in her paper of dogwood and azaleas, for which the town is famous. I noticed something else on the front page of the paper. There was a salute to a subscriber that simply said Charleston is the home of so-and-so. In large type. Right on the front page.

Who says no one ever gets their name in the paper unless they have been arrested or died? That certainly isn't the case in Charleston.

~R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.