What Bluegrass Needs is More News!

We've had a catch phrase on the Prescription Bluegrass Radio show for quite some time now that says: “Bluegrass News Happens Every Day – Somewhere in the World.” And while that is certainly true, you might not know it by reading the bluegrass media.

Over the last couple of years, I've noticed a definite decrease in the number of actual news stories being sent in to us as well as being published elsewhere. This isn't just isolated to our website alone but I've noticed a lack of fresh news stories being published on our fellow bluegrass media outlets' pages as well.

This comes as quite a surprise as at the same time the number of readers to the Prescription Bluegrass website, Facebook and Twitter pages have all been increasing tremendously. I don't have figures for any of the other media, but I can almost certainly say that with the increasing popularity of the social page genre it stands to reason that the traffic counts on their respective sites would also be increasing.

So where does the dis-connect come from? If more and more folks are discovering bluegrass and consequentially also discovering the bluegrass media, why are we not seeing more news stories than we do?

We used to publish, on average six to ten fresh new stories every day, weekends and holidays included. Lately we might only publish one or two and on some days, disappointingly, absolutely none. To some degree, I might take some of the blame and answer a part of my own question. As we have grown and tightened up the parameters for what actually qualifies as bonafide news, we may be passing up on some of the stories that were sent in. But that number is so insignificant that it hardly accounts for the entire shift toward less news.

We've had public service announcements on our radio show and graphic advertising on our website and social pages to inform the public that we accept news stories from any source. We've tried to educate the public, too, on what they need to send so that the stories can be complete. Occasionally we will get some tidbits that just can't be used because of the lack of detail and if we can't ferret out the missing information, we can't publish the story. But that too is only a very small percentage of the stories that get sent to us.

For the most part, we get very little sent in from the average bluegrass fan, musician, etc. who just happens to be in the right place to capture something newsworthy and pass it on to us. Mostly we get professionals sending us press releases on promotional events. Even when a band is in the midst of an actual news story like a vehicle accident that disables a tour bus or a medical condition that prevents a portion of the artist's touring schedule, we don't always hear about it through the press agent channels but rather through social sites - if at all. There are a few exceptions and for those press agents that do a good job, we thank you.

So, back to the catch phrase: “Bluegrass News Happens Every Day – Somewhere in the World”! Tell us when it does, please. We'll be glad to publish your news for the rest of the world to read and then just maybe you'll gain some new fans in the process … or your favorite band might get some extra notoriety thanks to something you send in from a festival or jam session you've attended.