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08/29/2018

Blade stories do affect local lives; all readers are valued

From The Blade

Anyone who works at a daily newspaper, especially if it’s the only daily in a city, knows how much influence and impact stories can have — for good or bad.

I don’t just mean the editorials, which are the opinion of the publisher and the editorial board of a newspaper, but the stories about the life of a city, such as one about why so many empty big-box stores are littering Toledo.

 

The Blade did such a story last Sunday on the cover of Business & Real Estate, interviewing area real estate brokers about the difficulty of filling closed retail stores in Toledo, such as the vacant Food Town and Andersons stores. It was a good story and explained how changing shopping patterns have negatively affected local retail businesses.

The story also hurt one of the little guys in town, Norm Eisen, better known as Stormin’ Norman, who for the past nine years has operated what he calls “the largest flea-market under roof in northwest Ohio” in one of the closed big-box stores mentioned in our business story — the former Food Town store at 5860 Lewis Avenue, just north of Alexis Road.

“We’ve had several customers call asking if we’re going out of business, if we’re still in business,” Mr. Eisen told me last week. “Just the opposite. Second-hand stores are growing in Toledo. There’s one down the street on Lewis, and a couple on Sylvania Avenue.”

Mr. Eisen points out that his business is doing so well that he could use a place that’s even bigger. “We’re not looking for any financial help from the city, just some place that’s affordable.”

When Mr. Eisen called the newspaper about our story and the calls he was receiving, we ran a clarification on Page A2 Tuesday telling readers his flea market occupies a space in the former Food Town store. Mr. Eisen said he’d rather have a story about his business on the Sunday Business cover, but I told him Page A2 is where The Blade runs corrections and clarifications.

Many of the calls I get from readers are questions about why The Blade does what it does. The answer many times is “tradition.” That drives people, including me, a bit crazy.

The Blade, as most newspapers, has a style book. It’s not actually a book any longer, and it’s not about style as in fashion. It is a digital set of rules and guidelines that all Blade reporters and editors are expected to know well. It governs everything from how we report on crime victims — we don’t print their exact addresses — to where we publish corrections and clarifications — on Page A2, bottom right.

The style book of The Blade or any newspaper makes sure the journalists working there are all working from a common set of standards so there is consistency in how stories are written.

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