The Post might publish stories about puppies, but we're not forgetting hard-hitting news — we're providing the reader with options.
Here's a fact that's simple enough: One of the reasons students join campus media outlets is so they might gather a bit of real-world newsroom experience before they hit the job market.
What actually constitutes a "real-world newsroom experience" is a little more difficult. Here at The Post, we strive for diversity in our content, so staffers are adequately prepared for anything that's thrown their way, whether that be in topics ranging from business to politics, sports, photography, design and multimedia. Basically, we hope they'll try a little bit of everything.
That includes so-called "viral" content.
Readers may have noticed two online articles this past week mentioning a two-legged local puppy named Tumbles who gets by with a little help from his 3-D printed wheelchair. The wheelchair was crafted by The Ohio University Innovation Center.
If you didn't read it in The Post, you probably read it on BuzzFeed, ABC News, CBS News or The Guardian. Tumbles made national news.
Predicting that "viral" cycle is part of what pushes us to publish articles about subjects like Tumbles so quickly (writers jumped on the Tumbles story Friday afternoon, and have been working on a follow-up throughout the week), and gives The Post a little bit of a lesson in journalism: Even the most serious of news outlets are going to give the Tumbles story a chance.
Occasionally, that leads to criticism from readers. Wouldn't we want to focus on the real news? Shouldn't we be doing something else? My answer to that is that we are. Posties this week wrote of the difficulties Ohio University's custodial workers face, and why many love their jobs, the temporary closure of the Ohio University Survivor Advocacy Program and the career of Ohio Coach Frank Solich, the longest tenured coach in the Mid-American Conference.
These are stories that matter, and we hope they're ones readers enjoyed. We certainly hope they're akin to the ones we'll be pursuing after graduation. But, we still know readers want more of that puppy-related content, and that our employers will, too. If it were so trivial, it wouldn't be pursued by some of the more trusted outlets in journalism.
So, we'll keep on that Tumbles story — but don't expect we'll move away from hard-hitting news anytime soon.
Emma Ockerman is a junior studying journalism and editor-in-chief of The Post. What did you think of our coverage this week? Email her at eo300813@ohio.edu or tweet her at @eockerman.
