Ask Mr. Answer Person: "How do you find or choose the stories you report on?"

Thomas e-mails Mr. Answer Person: "I have a question about the internal workings of decorahnews.com.  How do you find or choose the stories you report on?  Or do they find you?  What's the process you go through as an independent reporter?  Do you search out or filter out certain stories or is everything free game?"

Mr. Answer Person says: "Thank you for your question!  There's no simple answer, however.  News stories come to us in a variety of manners--by attending public meetings, by receiving news releases and by thinking up news story ideas, to mention the most common routes.

But one of the pleasures of reporting through the Internet is how interactive it is.  We're constantly in conversations with our readers, who are giving us ideas about news stories to cover and giving us feedback on the stories we have already covered.

Within the bounds of good taste and preventing libel, we'll tackle almost any story.  Our biggest limitation is that of having a small staff and a lot of work to do.

That's why help from our readers is so important.  We always welcome you responses to our news stories, your news releases about events you're involved with, and your suggestions for what future stories we should be covering.  Stay in touch!  E-mail us at news @decorahnews.com