Publishers Perspective: Opinions Are Just That

Opinions

– By Josh Warburton –

So, the bulk of what you’re about to read is in response to an advertiser concerned with what they felt was “inflammatory click-bait” often seen on SUindependent.com, specifically the cartoons from a syndication service and local right-leaning opinion pieces. This was my response (edited for length and clarity).

“So, I do hear you. Our editor has been given the directive to run “balanced” opinions, editorials, and cartoons, both in print and online. In print, that ends up generally being two articles out of 28 or 32 pages. If you grab an August print edition, you’ll see the first seven pages are events coverage, one page (two articles, one conservative and one progressive) of opinion content, a hike, a movie review, a theater review, and almost three pages of our calendar of events. From there, the Zion Guide content starts with the Springdale Map and 12 more pages of visitor information and maps. So, in print, our opinion content is literally 1 page of 28 currently. Arts and entertainment have always been our focus, with just a little opinion content sprinkled in.

Online, our editor has the very difficult job of trying to find and publish content daily. Sadly, we get far less local and event-related content sent to us than we would like. He works to publish every relevant local item we can find and basically “fills in the blanks” with whatever else he sees fit, and one source for that is a syndicate for opinions and cartoons that are from a broad spectrum, politically. I have directed him to not only keep it balanced but also to work to publish the least divisive content available. That said, I can see your perspective that those seem kind of “click-baity.” That’s certainly not the intent, and frankly, they don’t do as well from a click’s perspective as the local event-related content we pride ourselves on publishing. So why publish them at all, you ask? I’ll explain.

Today as I go to our Facebook page, I see the first post for our Weekly Events Guide. Next is the Arts Summit at the Electric Theater. Next is one of the cartoons you shared. Then next is Ed Kociela’s very liberal piece on Trump. I’ll mention here that Ed came to us as a regular contributing opinion writer after writing for the Spectrum and then SG News for over two decades…and after both entities determined he was just too liberal/progressive for them to publish anymore. But we do…and to our detriment. We get complaints because of his and other progressive writers’ opinion pieces on a fairly regular basis, and we still get called a “Liberal Rag” regularly. I mentioned all that as a way of pointing out just how difficult our job is to try to include any opinion content and not be labeled as either this or that. The opinion content has always been a part of who The Independent is for 26 and a half years. Over the years, we have published dozens…probably hundreds of pieces that I personally disagreed with. The whole point of running opinion content is to spark conversations, create dialogue, share ideas, and broaden opinions. I’m sure we could have taken the easier route and simply not run opinion pieces or letters to the editor, but we decided early on to be a source for a little bit of that for the reasons I just mentioned.

Moving down our Facebook page, I see two more cartoons, one clearly conservative and one kind of neutral. Then the next three posts are SG Art Museum, Kayenta Acoustic Roots Music, and the Zion Canyon Music Festival articles. So that’s 5 of the first nine posts being event-related, three cartoons, and Ed’s very liberal piece on Trump.

That said, you have every right to decide to spend your marketing dollars however you see fit and support whatever entities you want to. But just know that we walk a tightrope, especially in a place like southern Utah. There have been multiple campaigns throughout the years to “cancel” us, up to and including having all of our advertisers called one by one and asked to not advertise or distribute The Independent….because of our “liberal” content…and multiple times over the two and a half decades. You may very well have received some of these calls yourself.

And also…I want you to know I hear your concerns and share them. We never want to be a mouthpiece for the right or anyone. Our goal is only to start conversations and broaden our horizons.

I hope that through this exchange, you can see what a difficult job we have, just to keep the lights on and offer even a minimum amount of opinion content. And although the current online mix may not seem to reflect this, we’ve actually moved away from publishing as much opinion content as we once did, and frankly, for just this reason. Every time we lose an advertiser due to a piece of opinion content, I want to publish them less and less. But again, we publish them for good reasons…and we want to be able to offer that outlet to our readers. You don’t have to support that choice, but I hope you can understand it.

I do want to thank you for all your many years of support. I’d like to think it was because you feel we offer you good value, and I’d also like to think you may have bought ads with us to support our efforts to publish the very best Southern Utah has to offer…and even support our mission and willingness to spark conversations.

I hope we can earn your business back. You’re not going to agree with every piece we publish; I don’t. But I hope you better understand why they are there. Be well.”

Viewpoints and perspectives expressed throughout The Independent are those of the individual contributors. They do not necessarily reflect those held by the staff of The Independent or our advertising sponsors. Your comments, rebuttals, and contributions are welcome in accordance with our Terms of Service. Please be respectful and abide by our Community Rules. If you have privacy concerns you can view our Privacy Policy here. Thank you! 

Click here to submit an article, guest opinion piece, or a Letter to the Editor