Today's trust tip: Make your contact information truly accessible
Hi there. Joy here.
Finding phone numbers and email addresses for journalists can be really frustrating. It's almost as if we don't want to be found.
I had an experience last week that I hate to imagine your audience having. I wanted to email a journalist, so I went to his news organization's website to find contact information. The Contact Us page had only a general form, with options to have your message go to different departments (circulation, obituaries, etc.). No names. No direct info. So I played detective and guessed what it might be (first initial, last name, url, perhaps?), then googled that potential email address. Voila!
Your community members probably don't know how to do that, and they shouldn't have to. In this scenario, they would most likely just give up, and they would leave with the sense that you don't actually want to hear from them.
If you value trust, that means being accessible and responsive to the people you aim to serve. Why don't we commit to making it easier for people to contact us. How? Publish your staff list. Describe what people's jobs are, and explain how to reach each person. (I understand this could get unmanageable if your audience is absolutely huge. In that case, consider at least publishing a name, email and phone number for each department.)
Check out the Contact Us page from one of our newsroom partners, The Virginian-Pilot. It includes bios and information from the top leadership on down. It's also accessible directly from the menu on the home page.
Here's a sample of what you'll find for two reporters.
Audience team leader Sean Kennedy (whose contact information you'll also easily find), wrote this to me when I inquired about it: "I worry quite a bit that people see the newspaper as this giant curtain and they can’t see behind it and don’t see us as people. So we really want to be as open and transparent with our readers as we can." He hopes to add photos of each person next.
TRY THIS: Go to your home page and see how many clicks it takes you to find a phone number and email address for the newsroom. How about info for you personally? If a link on the home page doesn't easily take you in the right direction, consider proposing publishing a staff list. If you can't get buy-in for the newsroom, try adding your contact info to your own work.
Ready to level up? Trust is mission-critical, and it's time to prioritize it. We wrote this week about why and how we hope you decide to take action. We're here to help.
— Joy Mayer, Trusting News director
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