GOSLOW ON NOT BEING PART OF THE NEW WORCESTER MAGAZINE AND THE NEED FOR MORE VOICES, NOT LESS

When you're a reporter, you look at the city you live in differently. Every building and person is a potential story and you're always on the lookout for a local politician, official, or mover and shaker who might lead you to the next big scoop. When you're a reporter who suddenly finds yourself out of work, as I did on October 7 when Worcester Magazine laid me off, that inclination to disseminate everything you see and hear into potential copy doesn't go away. Thus, when the following Monday I found myself on the Union Station platform waiting to put my wife on the 8:16 MBTA train to Boston, it wasn't buildings I saw on the other side of the tracks. It was the glassworks in the nearby factory, it was the Heywood Building, Water Street, and the Blackstone Canal District, and beyond, Main South and the Arts District that may never be but an area filled with businesses that'll play a large role in the future of the city.

Heading back home via Worcester Center Boulevard, I wasn't sure whether to look into the windows of passing cars in search of a familiar face in hope of a recognizing glance that confirmed I was still a living viable human being or to look away in embarrassment of suddenly no longer having a role in the community in which I've lived for 48 years. That feeling was repeated the following week while visiting the Massachusetts Department of Workforce Development Career Center in the Winsor Building on Front Street. Earlier in the year I had been there doing a story on how the loss of the mall was affecting occupancy rates downtown; this time, perhaps the same person who answered my questions respectfully as a reporter took one look at me as we entered the elevator together and with asking me my destination, offered, "Sixth floor." As in the unemployment center, get away from me (Of course, he might have done the same back then if we met face-to-face; reporters at alternative newspapers usually don't make enough to cover replenishing the wardrobe on a regular basis).

The newspaper business is seen many different ways depending on what your relationships is with an individual paper and your expectations of it. Advertisers want the paper to provide it with an influx of new customers; if the hoped for payoff doesn't occur, they probably won't be advertisers much longer. For readers, the relationship is one that's ever changing depending on age and the other information sources that reader uses. As a reader, I want a local newspaper to tell me something about the community it's in that'll make me want to react to what I read, be it go to a political debate, a gallery opening, or a concert in the park. Give me something that'll affect my life and get me off my ass.

I've always tried to approach my writing and reporting the same way. Give people information that'll allow them to make a decision, be it working out their finances so they can deal with rising energy costs or whether or not to go out to Ralph's or the Lucky Dog to hear a band they're not familiar with. When I started at The Worcester Phoenix back in 1995, Managing Editor Clif Garboden says he always tried to get his music writers to tell the readers something about a musical group or performer who's name was starting to show up on a weekly basis in the club listings as soon as possible. If someone's claiming to be the place to go for a certain kind of information, the reader shouldn't have to go elsewhere to find out who those groups are.

Unfortunately, for the newspaper business, there isn't enough advertising revenue to provide the pages that would allow everything that should be covered to get the coverage it needs. The web provides the opportunity for "instant newspapers" on any subject but only the most loyal followers are apt to find their way to the site on a regular basis. That leaves those brave souls who still battle to put printed works out on the street on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis as potential ways for the everyday citizen trying to make their own mark on their community to try to let people know of their existence. And that's why it's important, if you read something in a newspaper or magazine that strikes a chord with you or causes you to go out and do something that you let them know, through an email or a letter, about that experience. It's equally as important if you patronize one of their advertisers, to let that business know that you read that publication.

And, should you not enjoy anything at all about a publication but thought that you would, don't throw down your copy with the intention of never picking up another one. Write them a letter, send them an email, pick up the phone and share your thoughts on how they could have won over your readership. Now, more than ever, newspapers need readers that are passionate about them. They need those readers excited about getting the next issue, telling their friends and co-workers about the stories that connect with them, and serving as mini-advertising agencies for those publications. Over the summer and into the fall, I had spoken with many people from all aspects of the city who swore their loyalty and love for Worcester Magazine; somewhere along the way, however, there was a major disconnect because those people, who seemed so passionate about the city, don't seem to be conveying that love to local businesses. Perhaps that's about to change with the onset of "The New Worcester Magazine."

As for me, I'll be covering music and clubs for Pulse, local culture (including music) for Mothertown, and more than likely, community related issues for InCity Times. And if you havent' noticed, there's more fresh material on Wormtown.org than ever before. As always, you're invited to join in the process by sending your photos and stories to me at bgoslow@yahoo.com, but also send your material to the other publications in the area. We need more voices, not less.

Brian Goslow