Stacey Woelfel spent 35 years on the faculty of the Missouri School of Journalism.
And for 24 years, he was the news director for KOMU, the University of Missouri-owned NBC affiliate for central Missouri.
News Blues does accept submissions for Guest Commentaries, but we reserve the right to publish or edit them. Send your commentary to Paul@NewsBlues.com
Free, Take One! New Year’s Resolutions for Journalists
By Stacey Woelfel
Forget going to the gym or eating better. Use your resolution for 2026 to make journalism healthier.
I’ve never been one to do New Year’s resolutions. Sure, I could always lose a few pounds or spend a little less time on my phone. I’m not sure why, but I have never joined in with the mass ritual of making plans for a new me in the new year. Still, I know this works for a lot of people, so why not throw out some suggestions for other people to try in 2026?
The current state of journalism could sure use some self-improvement.
So here’s my free list of resolutions for journalists to adopt in the new year. Feel free to take as many as you like!
1. I’m going to ask more follow-up questions: I’m shocked and amazed at how often I’m watching a news conference or other interview and the reporter asks a question that yields an answer just begging for a juicy follow-up question, only to have the journalist move on to an entirely different topic. As we teach very early in journalism school, a good interview is a conversation in which the reporter listens and adapts to what the source is saying. Purists even say reporters should only bring one question to an interview—with each subsequent question being a follow-up to what was just said. I don’t know if I would go that far, but we all need to listen more and follow up on what is being said.
2. I’m going to add more context to stories: The audience consumes news less regularly and frequently than it ever has before. The days of a family sitting down to watch the evening news every night or reading the paper every morning are long gone. Yet I see so many stories that assume we have all the context needed to understand why some new element of the story is important—or even what it means. I understand that adding background and context takes time or space in a story, but without it, the story can be meaningless to the audience. Beyond that, good context is the place where we can point out the misstatements and mistruths coming from the people we cover. Social media has been doing a better job of adding context than journalists have, what with the community notes feature on Twitter/X or in the comments section of a post. Journalists need to do a better job of putting each story into perspective and not treating it like a standalone entity.
3. I’m going to cover less crime: Those who have known me for a while know this has been my rallying cry for more than 25 years. I’m completely convinced the small audiences we have for our TV newscasts now are due in part to our driving the audience away with coverage of minor crime that affects no one except the victim and perpetrator. But crime is easy to cover—there’s always a crime scene, a victim and a suspect. And it sort of looks like news, even if it doesn’t really affect anyone. If TV news took the resources it puts into covering minor crime and put that toward solid enterprise reporting, the nature of the medium would change overnight.
4. I’m going to cover less sports: Along the same line of thought, the media spend entirely too much time covering sports. I remember a visit to a TV newsroom in Milwaukee years ago. It was during the NFL season and I sat in for a morning editorial meeting. After listening to about 40 minutes of story pitches entirely about the Packers, the news director turned to me to see if I had anything to pitch. I said—I thought jokingly—“Could you do more Packers coverage?” No one laughed. In fact, they turned to each other and discussed additional football stories. I understand there is a great deal of passion about the local NFL team—especially in January if that team has a shot at the Super Bowl—but that doesn’t mean football coverage has to take up the entire newscast or the entire front page of the newspaper. There are countless sources for the latest NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA, MLS…(need I go on?) stories, but increasingly fewer options for reputable news—especially local news. As our nation’s news deserts grow, what our audiences need is not more sports stories.
5. I’m going to pitch more original ideas: It’s not just sports that gets us to pitch the same stories over and over again. Being a journalist is difficult work and we all look for some shortcuts to get everything demanded of us done. Doing similar stories or going back to the same sources over and over again can be one way to cut a few corners and reduce our workloads. Too often, it’s easier to do an unnecessary follow-up to an older story than it is to do something new. I’m not arguing against follow-up reports, but sometimes we dwell on what have been high-interest stories because it’s easier than doing something new.
6. I’m going to do more investigative reporting: Doing stories that matter to people, that right wrongs and that empower the audience to live better lives will always be the best use of our reporting resources. Investigative reporting pays off handsomely with the audience—important stories that get results will make the audience sit up and take notice. These stories take more time and effort to do, but they pay off in building the reputation of any news organization that puts in the effort to do them right.
7. I’m going to do longer stories: We’re definitely in an era of shorter attention spans, with most of us grabbing news in tiny bits on our phones throughout the day. With that need met by our devices, why not use our newscasts and publications to deliver longer stories that allow consumers to dig deep in important topics? All the small bits of news we get from our phones have left many of us with the desire for deeper, more fulfilling content—just look at the ever-rising popularity of documentaries. The other benefit to newsrooms is that longer stories take up more time and space in what we air and publish, reducing the need for a higher story count and letting journalists spend more time on each piece to make it better.
8. I’m going to reinvent how I cover the news: I’ve made brief mention here before (and promise to do more soon) on the efforts of Kyle Clark in Denver and Fred Roggin in Palm Springs to reinvent how local TV news operates and how it can work for the audience. These journalists and others are working to break free from a newscast template that has been basically the same for 60+ years. They work for forward-thinking companies that are allowing this experimentation in hopes of sustaining and improving TV news. Even if you don’t work for a particularly progressive-thinking company, find small ways to throw out tired conventions and make what you do indispensable to the audience.
9. I’m going to consider working for a nonprofit newsroom: One way to get to work for a company that’s not focused on the quarterly profit statement is to find one that’s not in journalism for a profit. Nonprofit newsrooms are undoubtedly doing some of the best journalism in America right now. The pay in those newsrooms is probably smaller than what you’ve been making in commercial news, but the payoff for the good of journalism is immeasurably larger. I have hope the nonprofit news ecosystem will continue to grow to fill our news deserts and to compete with the billionaire-owned media companies that are failing their audiences on a daily basis. If that growth happens, those nonprofit newsrooms will need your talent.
10. I won’t quit: We’re living in a time in which it’s very difficult to be a journalist. From a president who calls us the “enemy of the people” to employers demanding more and more from us without providing better compensation or working conditions, it can be easy to think a job outside journalism would greatly improve your quality of life. But remember what drew you to this profession in the first place—the ability to make a difference for your community or your nation, the chance to reach out and meet people who need to get their stories out or the opportunity to tell true, engaging stories every day. Those reasons you chose this job don’t exist in the same way anywhere else. Stick with it another year and see if the previous nine resolutions can help you fall in love with journalism again.
From my retirement locale in California, I’m not in a position to adopt any of these resolutions myself—though I would if I could.
But I’ll keep my fingers crossed I start to see some of these changes in our profession. There’s nothing like a new year to pick up some new habits, right?
- Guest Commentary
January 2, 2026Free, Take One! New Year’s Resolutions for Journalists
By Stacey Woelfel
NOTE: This is from Stacey Woelfel’s Substack column, The Last Editor by Stacey Woelfel.
Stacey Woelfel spent 35 years on the faculty of the Missouri School of Journalism.
And for 24 years, he was the news director for KOMU, the University of Missouri-owned NBC affiliate for central Missouri.
News Blues does accept submissions for Guest Commentaries, but we reserve the right to publish or edit them. Send your commentary to Paul@NewsBlues.com
Free, Take One! New Year’s Resolutions for Journalists
By Stacey Woelfel
Forget going to the gym or eating better. Use your resolution for 2026 to make journalism healthier.
I’ve never been one to do New Year’s resolutions. Sure, I could always lose a few pounds or spend a little less time on my phone. I’m not sure why, but I have never joined in with the mass ritual of making plans for a new me in the new year. Still, I know this works for a lot of people, so why not throw out some suggestions for other people to try in 2026?
The current state of journalism could sure use some self-improvement.
So here’s my free list of resolutions for journalists to adopt in the new year. Feel free to take as many as you like!
1. I’m going to ask more follow-up questions: I’m shocked and amazed at how often I’m watching a news conference or other interview and the reporter asks a question that yields an answer just begging for a juicy follow-up question, only to have the journalist move on to an entirely different topic. As we teach very early in journalism school, a good interview is a conversation in which the reporter listens and adapts to what the source is saying. Purists even say reporters should only bring one question to an interview—with each subsequent question being a follow-up to what was just said. I don’t know if I would go that far, but we all need to listen more and follow up on what is being said.
2. I’m going to add more context to stories: The audience consumes news less regularly and frequently than it ever has before. The days of a family sitting down to watch the evening news every night or reading the paper every morning are long gone. Yet I see so many stories that assume we have all the context needed to understand why some new element of the story is important—or even what it means. I understand that adding background and context takes time or space in a story, but without it, the story can be meaningless to the audience. Beyond that, good context is the place where we can point out the misstatements and mistruths coming from the people we cover. Social media has been doing a better job of adding context than journalists have, what with the community notes feature on Twitter/X or in the comments section of a post. Journalists need to do a better job of putting each story into perspective and not treating it like a standalone entity.
3. I’m going to cover less crime: Those who have known me for a while know this has been my rallying cry for more than 25 years. I’m completely convinced the small audiences we have for our TV newscasts now are due in part to our driving the audience away with coverage of minor crime that affects no one except the victim and perpetrator. But crime is easy to cover—there’s always a crime scene, a victim and a suspect. And it sort of looks like news, even if it doesn’t really affect anyone. If TV news took the resources it puts into covering minor crime and put that toward solid enterprise reporting, the nature of the medium would change overnight.
4. I’m going to cover less sports: Along the same line of thought, the media spend entirely too much time covering sports. I remember a visit to a TV newsroom in Milwaukee years ago. It was during the NFL season and I sat in for a morning editorial meeting. After listening to about 40 minutes of story pitches entirely about the Packers, the news director turned to me to see if I had anything to pitch. I said—I thought jokingly—“Could you do more Packers coverage?” No one laughed. In fact, they turned to each other and discussed additional football stories. I understand there is a great deal of passion about the local NFL team—especially in January if that team has a shot at the Super Bowl—but that doesn’t mean football coverage has to take up the entire newscast or the entire front page of the newspaper. There are countless sources for the latest NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA, MLS…(need I go on?) stories, but increasingly fewer options for reputable news—especially local news. As our nation’s news deserts grow, what our audiences need is not more sports stories.
5. I’m going to pitch more original ideas: It’s not just sports that gets us to pitch the same stories over and over again. Being a journalist is difficult work and we all look for some shortcuts to get everything demanded of us done. Doing similar stories or going back to the same sources over and over again can be one way to cut a few corners and reduce our workloads. Too often, it’s easier to do an unnecessary follow-up to an older story than it is to do something new. I’m not arguing against follow-up reports, but sometimes we dwell on what have been high-interest stories because it’s easier than doing something new.
6. I’m going to do more investigative reporting: Doing stories that matter to people, that right wrongs and that empower the audience to live better lives will always be the best use of our reporting resources. Investigative reporting pays off handsomely with the audience—important stories that get results will make the audience sit up and take notice. These stories take more time and effort to do, but they pay off in building the reputation of any news organization that puts in the effort to do them right.
7. I’m going to do longer stories: We’re definitely in an era of shorter attention spans, with most of us grabbing news in tiny bits on our phones throughout the day. With that need met by our devices, why not use our newscasts and publications to deliver longer stories that allow consumers to dig deep in important topics? All the small bits of news we get from our phones have left many of us with the desire for deeper, more fulfilling content—just look at the ever-rising popularity of documentaries. The other benefit to newsrooms is that longer stories take up more time and space in what we air and publish, reducing the need for a higher story count and letting journalists spend more time on each piece to make it better.
8. I’m going to reinvent how I cover the news: I’ve made brief mention here before (and promise to do more soon) on the efforts of Kyle Clark in Denver and Fred Roggin in Palm Springs to reinvent how local TV news operates and how it can work for the audience. These journalists and others are working to break free from a newscast template that has been basically the same for 60+ years. They work for forward-thinking companies that are allowing this experimentation in hopes of sustaining and improving TV news. Even if you don’t work for a particularly progressive-thinking company, find small ways to throw out tired conventions and make what you do indispensable to the audience.
9. I’m going to consider working for a nonprofit newsroom: One way to get to work for a company that’s not focused on the quarterly profit statement is to find one that’s not in journalism for a profit. Nonprofit newsrooms are undoubtedly doing some of the best journalism in America right now. The pay in those newsrooms is probably smaller than what you’ve been making in commercial news, but the payoff for the good of journalism is immeasurably larger. I have hope the nonprofit news ecosystem will continue to grow to fill our news deserts and to compete with the billionaire-owned media companies that are failing their audiences on a daily basis. If that growth happens, those nonprofit newsrooms will need your talent.
10. I won’t quit: We’re living in a time in which it’s very difficult to be a journalist. From a president who calls us the “enemy of the people” to employers demanding more and more from us without providing better compensation or working conditions, it can be easy to think a job outside journalism would greatly improve your quality of life. But remember what drew you to this profession in the first place—the ability to make a difference for your community or your nation, the chance to reach out and meet people who need to get their stories out or the opportunity to tell true, engaging stories every day. Those reasons you chose this job don’t exist in the same way anywhere else. Stick with it another year and see if the previous nine resolutions can help you fall in love with journalism again.
From my retirement locale in California, I’m not in a position to adopt any of these resolutions myself—though I would if I could.
But I’ll keep my fingers crossed I start to see some of these changes in our profession. There’s nothing like a new year to pick up some new habits, right?
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