How important is experience at a newspaper?
In reality it could be the most important attribute a newspaper can provide to its readers and, unfortunately, it is quickly disappearing amid cutbacks at major papers across the country.
Reporters can use that experience to develop stories that others have overlooked. Or ones younger reporters might not consider “flashy” enough.
As an example, 25-year veteran Kansas City Star reporter Steve Everly recently examined motor oil in a front-page story.
Oil?
Who even thinks about oil? If you read Everly’s story you will realize that maybe we should.
Everyone uses oil, but few have any idea about what goes into making it or that many places are putting recycled oil in our cars. And we are paying good money for the substandard stuff.
As an example, did you know the industry estimates that 10 to 20 percent of motor oil has some problem — from overall poor quality to being outdated, misbranded or used for the wrong purpose?
We do now thanks to Everly, who has been on the energy beat at the McClatchy paper for about 16 years.
Everly has won a slew of awards over the years for his energy stories. He quietly does his craft in a way that is sometimes easy to overlook.
That would be a mistake.