MONDAY BUZZ: What to do with those reader-submitted photos

It is a question every reporter or editor has to deal with no matter what part of the country your newspaper operates, "Where do I run the photo of the man and his vegetables."

During our training seminar at the Stephenville (Texas) Empire-Tribune, this question was asked. The news staff there was having trouble finding a good place in the newspaper to publish reader-submitted photos that do not fit the mark for quality or content for the front page, or even the lifestyles section or inside news section.

My advice: Begin a "Photo of the Day" feature on an inside page of your newspaper. I have seen newspapers typically run this type of "Photo of the Day" feature at the top of their Records page (typically page 2) or on a page that struggled to feature art.

Having this feature on a daily or weekly basis will provide your staff with an anchor to run these reader-submitted photos, and also could better promote readers to submit their photos.

Sometimes newsrooms struggle to see any news value in these reader-submitted photos or photos of "grip and grin" events. My answer, it may not be news to us — but it is news to them.

And that's what we have to remember.