Newsworthiness Is Key

Sending a Credit Union Times reporter or correspondent to one of the hundreds of credit union meetings and conferences held every year involves a big commitment of time and budget. Yet, the decision regarding which ones to cover entails a much more important consideration. It’s not location either. The educational program of any conference must first be deemed to be of interest and of value to subscribers. In other words, the event, above all else, must be newsworthy. If this publication went to every meeting that conference sponsors thought we should attend, and covered every session like they think we should, it would probably take more than 100 pages a week just to accommodate conference coverage. Forget the fact we do not have the staff or budget to become a conference coverage credit union publication. More importantly, no one would read it. The policy of Credit Union Times, when our editors do decide content justifies coverage, is to only report on the most important news generated at a conference and to do so immediately in the current weekly issue. Not two months after the event is long forgotten. Credit Union Times will never write dozens of articles over a period of six to eight weeks on a single credit union conference. No CU conference produces that much news. These are some of the reasons why you won’t see Credit Union Times reporters at every state, national, international, and special interest credit union meeting. -