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Officer withdraws from K9 attack civil suit

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Two charged with copper theft at Duryea rail yard

<p>George Spohr, the former Times Leader executive editor who died last year, had a favorite phrase that still sends shivers down newsroom spines: &#8220;Facebook gold.&#8221;</p><p>With no disrespect to the late Mr. Spohr, there were many of us who rolled our eyes and gritted our teeth when George would send a pointed email letting us know that he had a tip about some fast food place or chain retailer opening &#8212; or closing &#8212; and that we needed to post something immediately.</p><p>&#8220;We need to get this online ASAP,&#8221; he would write. &#8220;This is going to be Facebook gold!&#8221;</p><p>Sure enough, many of these stories would, indeed, prove to be a treasure trove of clicks and shares.</p><p>Those of us raised on harder news often felt conflicted about such assignments.</p><p>Some traditionalists didn&#8217;t think they were news at all. I was in the camp who felt they were newsworthy to a point, but that the pendulum had swung too far in the direction of the trivial at the expense of the serious.</p><p>Some readers clearly felt the same. But the underlying lesson &#8212; bolstering George&#8217;s point &#8212; was that there clearly was substantial reader interest in the chain business shuffle.</p><p>There lies one of the time-honored struggles in the news industry: Giving the readers what we believe you need to know vs. things you say that you want to know.</p><p>Monday afternoon offered a stark reminder of that perennial tension.</p><p>Jennifer Learn-Andes, our respected county government reporter, broke the story that District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis plans to seek a third term. We posted the news on our website and social media platforms more than an hour before The Other Paper&#8482; did.</p><p>Now I know many of you will say you don&#8217;t care about who had the scoop and you find it tacky when we pat ourselves on the back, but that&#8217;s not where I&#8217;m going with this.</p><p>Shortly after Jennifer&#8217;s story went online, we posted another scoop &#8212; smaller, we thought &#8212; namely that a sign at the Moosic Panera Bread restaurant is announcing that the chain plans to reopen in Wilkes-Barre Township this fall.</p><p>Neither development is a major surprise in the grand scheme of things, but each is newsworthy in its way.</p><p>How did you, the readers, react?</p><p>Within a few hours, a clear differential had emerged between the two stories on Facebook: Panera was receiving significantly more views, reactions and shares than the DA.</p><p>Given that we are talking about an important political story, I need to make a few critical caveats here.</p><p>First, I don&#8217;t believe that reaction is in any way a reflection on Salavantis. Second, initial comments on the post were broadly positive and supportive of the DA.</p><p>No, I think it&#8217;s that you folks just really, really love your chain restaurants.</p><p>The Panera story quickly and easily outstripped an update about lawsuits against an alleged bad cop and a story about a Hazleton standoff and arrest, both of which were posted hours earlier.</p><p>Last week, when The Other Paper&#8482; beat us online by more than an hour with an update about plans for a new Chick-fil-A restaurant planned for the Lucky&#8217;s Sporthouse site in Wilkes-Barre Township, we hustled to confirm the news and get it out.</p><p>It worked, and the story took on a life of its own: More than 1,000 shares, nearly 700 reactions and 59,000 people reached by the post.</p><p>So what, you ask? That&#8217;s what we often asked George.</p><p>At a time of dramatic change in the news industry, we need to be flexible and adaptable to change. Social media gives us a powerful tool to see what interests you in real time.</p><p>Does that mean we should write only about fast food all the time? Not by a longshot. That was one of the things some of us often battled with George about, God rest his soul.</p><p>We have a civic duty to inform you about what government is doing and who wants to take part in that process, as well as about public safety, and about bigger economic trends in the community.</p><p>Sometimes, though, you&#8217;re going to want to read about bars, restaurants and stores.</p><p>There&#8217;s room for both, but it requires a delicate balance every media outlet needs to be pondering.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Guests line up for the opening of Buffalo Wild Wings in 2014, a story that was heavily covered by the Times Leader. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_TTL110414buffalo1-5.jpg</photo0><caption0>Guests line up for the opening of Buffalo Wild Wings in 2014, a story that was heavily covered by the Times Leader. </caption0><photoCredit0>Times Leader file photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Roger DuPuis</p><p>rdupuis@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

Editor’s Comments: Striking a balance between clicks and civics