The 200-mile rule
That’s what they used to call it at a certain Dallas newspaper that is no more. Meaning when the story was beyond 200 miles being extra careful about the facts became, essentially, unnecessary. Because nobody out thataway was likely to be reading it.
In New York City, and New Jersey, when I worked in NJ in the 70s, it was more like the 50-mile rule, but the principle was the same. Emphasis on was. The intertubes have changed all that everywhere. Now, not only is everyone beyond 50- or 200-miles likely to read it, people on the other side of the world can, too. It makes everything harder. See why the legacy media hates the Web?
Posted: August 8th, 2010 under Scribbles, Texana.
Tags: American newspaper journalism, the 200-mile rule
Comments
Pingback from dustbury.com » Post-local for post-yokels
Time August 17, 2010 at 6:57 AM
[...] There was at one time a certain provincialism in American newspapers, and one fairly common manifest… That’s what they used to call it at a certain Dallas newspaper that is no more. Meaning when the story was beyond 200 miles being extra careful about the facts became, essentially, unnecessary. Because nobody out thataway was likely to be reading it. [...]
Comment from SnoopyTheGoon
Time August 10, 2010 at 3:12 PM
So true. Let them hate themselves into bankruptcy, far as I am concerned.