Positive news. (Can we do better?)
People doing good things. Acts of kindness and paying it forward. New inventions, companies that help people, and a whole lot more.
When folks ask me whether or not I think things are getting better, my answer is unequivocal, “yes.” (Just what I witness in my own community backs that.) Does that mean that I think “everything” is great? No. Pollyanna, I am not. I am very much cognizant of the issues and situations of our day.
With that said, I know there are great things going on in so many places, that I continue to believe in what our company and our organization do on a daily basis. (Just yesterday, I realized that we were sending out newsletter #1200. 1,200 daily newsletters heralding the goodness that is happening.)
I realized something else while I was assembling our daily page. (Our page daily posts links to stories from around the nation, as well as a positive quote or two, what special day it is, etc.) That compared to a year ago, where I had 29 stories, I was able to locate 4, reaching out to more resources. (I looked up previous years. 2020-29 stories, 2019-20 stories, 2018-81 stories! See below.)
I have been in every area of media over the last 25 years. (TV-sales and production; radio-management, sales and on-air; internet-owner and producer of over 100 sites since 1996; and print-owner of 5 publications over 15 years.) I have watched the trends in advertising and marketing. One of the largest trends has reduced a lot of income to newspapers and news sites. The result of that is that there are fewer people to cover and/or produce news that is “good” or positive.
As mentioned, I spend more time seeking out news sources these days than in years before. It is easy to blame COVID, the election, etc., but I can tell you this has been going on for a while. I continue to find that many are not covering this kind of thing. Now, that in itself is not necessarily a surprise. The media industry knows that fear and destruction (What we might call negative news.) sells better than things that are “good”. (Years ago, with one of my papers, I went out of my way to publish stories that promoted community, family and things that were fun for all.)
Over the years here at Positive News For You, I have talked about the intrigue that people have for things that are negative, even if they cause fear or anxiety.
I started this publication to cover positive news; things that promote community, business practices that help others, as well as those things that make life and living better. To locate people to write, video, and record about the good things that are around us. Our organization, PN4U INC, promotes positivity, positive events, and education that encourages people to be more positive.
I do not believe that there are fewer positive things happening today, than there were a year ago or even a couple of years ago. I believe there is not the money in the reporting of the positive things that go on in our lives. (I get the business decisions others make or feel they have to make.)
I wish it was as simple as just devoting more time to check every news outlet daily to locate more stories. But I think the answer is more to this. To work more towards a publication that does more than publishing the day-to-day positive news, but somehow has the ability to raise and create the funding for “roving reporters”.
To be frank, I am not sure how I accomplish this. As a friend said of me the other day, “you are an idealist. You not only believe it is good out there but you believe there is more good out there than we will ever know.”
Guilty. ?
I am going to continue to do what I have been doing already, but if you think you might have solutions or suggestions to do this better, I open to it. (At 65 years old I no longer feel like I need to have all the answers.)
Thanks in advance for your input.
2020
- Heartwarming moment little girl’s friends and family drive past her house in a surprise parade after her fourth birthday party was cancelled due to coronavirus
- Ella Pucci stands on the drive of her home in Nutley, New Jersey, as 37 vehicles drive past
- After 13 days in ICU, Case 119 finally won his battle against coronavirus
- General electric Workers Walk Off the Job, Demand to Make Ventilators. GE workers who normally make jet engines say their facilities are sitting idle while the country faces a dire ventilator shortage.
- SUPER! Emergency Covid room in Parma (ITALY) remains empty
- The teacher who disarmed, then hugged a student will receive the citizen Congressional Medal of Honor
- Coronavirus: A team from MIT is producing an open-source, low-cost ventilator design
- Oklahoma company says it’s shifting production from auto accessories to PPE for healthcare workers
- Dolly announced on Facebook that starting this Thursday, she’ll be reading to children online
- New blood test can detect 50 types of cancer
- This principal didn’t let a school closure stop her from announcing this year’s valedictorian and salutatorian
- Quarantine Leads Families to the Kitchen to Cook Together
- Newspaper deliveryman brings groceries to his older customers on morning route, no extra charge
- From Italy to Seattle, Reports Find Social Restrictions Are Working to Curb New COVID-19 Cases
- Taco Bell will hand you a free taco today — following proper social distancing protocol
- FDA Approves emergency use of malaria pill to treat COVID-19
- Zoo shares adorable pictures of orangutans playing with their otter friends
- FDA approves Battelle’s process to decontaminate N95 face masks – The Ohio company says its process could decontaminate 80,000 masks per day
- Feeling Brave? Here Are Some of Americans’ Most Bizarre Food Combos to Try in Lockdown
- Guy Fieri helping restaurant workers get $500 grants
- Ford, GE Plan to Produce 50,000 Ventilators in 100 Days
- Local Outdoor Gear Companies (In North Carolina) Work Together To Make Protective Equipment For WNC: ‘Together they hope to make half a million face shields per month for Western North Carolina soon.’
- Balloon artists leave inflatable bouquets around their towns in effort to spread positive energy amid coronavirus
- ‘I was brave’: Four-year-old girl says who was found safe having been protected by pet dog for 48 hours
- Local nail salon turns into makeshift face mask sewing station (Brentwood, Tennessee)
- Two women giving out air hugs to make people smile while social distancing!
- Since we are all locked inside watching this, I think we can agree this is uplifting news
- Volunteers deliver daily meals to seniors in New Jersey
- A Minnesota trooper pulled over a doctor for speeding. Then he gave her his N95 medical masks
2019
- A Perk of Delivering Mail: Meeting 30 to 50 Dogs a Day
- UPS driver Jason Hardesty has a special affinity with the pups of New Orleans.
- A Texas scientist was called ‘foolish’ for arguing the immune system could fight cancer. Then he won the Nobel Prize.
- Boy battling leukemia has bike stolen, Sheriff department brings him new one.
- 93-year-old woman reunited with lost wedding ring
- 93-year-old woman reunited with lost wedding ring
- Dallas Zoo Helps People With Dementia Connect With Nature
- Akron father, daughter attend law school and take bar exam together
- How a startup is quietly transforming our antiquated 911 system
- Teen wrestler injured in car crash speaks first words in 2 years
- Jackson Gannon, left, with Eli Strickland, the 2019 recipient of the Jackson Strong Award.
- This nonprofit helps homeless people record video messages and reunites them with long-lost loved ones
- New ‘Smart Toilet Seat’ Could Save Thousands and Monitor Vital Signs From Comfort of Home
- What do we think about this?
- Southwest Airlines flight attendant serenades mother of fallen Arizona state trooper
- Early learning center honors civil rights leader thanks to young activist
- UConn women’s ‘tiniest Husky’ inspiring players on and off court in battle with blood disorder
- Listen to Dad’s Delight When Daughter Defies Doctors and Suddenly Takes Her First Steps
- After a gardener’s truck was stolen, along with his rent money, cell phone and equipment, officers stepped in and paid to replace it all
- Officers show off the replacement equipment they bought.
2018
- Animal amputees walk again
- A prosthetics technician tests wheels on a squirrel after its limb amputation surgery at Aydin University in Istanbul, Turkey April 3, 2018. REUTERS/Osman Orsal
- Woman meets officer who saved her life
- Watch Dad Successfully Pull Out a Single Middle Block of Jenga
- Texas Senior Gets Full Ride to All Top 20 Colleges: ‘He’s Worked So Hard for This,’ Mom Says
- Restaurant Employees Surprise Coworker With A Plane Ticket To See Her Family
- Alexa now lets you donate to nearly 50 nonprofits
- Adult recipient of stem cell transplant in Calgary cured of sickle-cell disease
- Cleaning up water that bees like to drink
- Free San Antonio Muslim clinic treats the uninsured to honor God
- Dr. Shahid Aziz, an endocrinologist, sees patient Mohammad Nasar at El Bari Clinic. El Bari Clinic is a free medical clinic for patients without health insurance, open Fridays and Sundays and run by a volunteer group of physicians who are all Muslim. Photo: Alma E. Hernandez / For The Express-News
- Baltimore Student Accepted To All 8 Ivy League Schools
- Ebay billionaire keeps #MeToo moving by donating millions
- Meeting our match: Buying 100 percent renewable energy
- IU students rescue dog from railroad tracks, reunite dog with owner
- Toms River hockey dad sticks with team after son, 9, dies from leukemia
- One-armed teen baseball catcher inspires millions, including professional athletes
- Volunteer dedicates his life to Jewish community
- Bride dies weeks before wedding, but lives on through organ donation
- Paralyzed Groom Stands For His Bride
- Alum donates $10M to ASU; WWII vet honors professor who taught him 70 years ago
- Doctors told woman with cancer to move up wedding day. She refused, had €˜best day ever’
- Dog’s life-saving surgery after swallowing golf ball
- Outside YouTube, this Carl’s Jr. employee made a tourniquet from a bungee cord to help a bleeding woman
- Sesame Street theme park receives world’s first autism certification
- This Little Girl Lost Her Mother. So Her Bus Driver Started Braiding Her Hair
- Audiobook That Was 42 Years Overdue Finally Returned to Library
- 7-Year-Old With Cancer Makes Care Packages for Other Hospitalized Kids
- A College Student Saved a Drowning Squirrel Using a Trick She Learned From The Office
- Grocery store singer gets accepted to Berklee College of Music
- Nation reflects on Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy
- Martin Luther King Jr. Dreamed of Realizing America’s Promise
- Olympian donates 200 pairs of running shoes to Colo. kids
- How Two Runners Are Using Their Beloved Sport To Fight Drug …
- Teen Gives Back To Community One Laundry Load At A Time
- Heroes of the Heartland: Des Moines officer changes lives with meals
- This Yard Sign Proves That At Least Someone Gets It- love each other sign no politics
- Where Marijuana is Legal, Opioid Prescriptions Fall, Studies Find
- New Jersey is Giving Away Thousands of Trees Here’s How to Get Yours
- 8th Grader Saves All Year for Spring Break So She Can Pay For Low-Income People’s Laundry
- Parkland shooting student injured after shielding classmates released from hospital
- These Ordinary Hats Are Actually Bicycle Helmets That Could Save Thousands of Lives
- Two college students are revolutionizing the way that bicyclists stay safe on the roads. David Hall and Jordan Klein are the masterminds behind the Park and Diamond helmet €” a piece of headwear that is as thin and stylish as a baseball cap or beanie, but as durable as a traditional bike helmet.
- Mom crosses border every day to help the poor
- Hotel gives out environmental friendly sunscreen to protect Hawaii’s coral reefs
- Watch: One-armed high school baseball catcher inspires
- Britain to ban ivory items regardless of their age
- ‘It’s up to us to take care of us’: Volunteer dedicates his life to service
- The mystery of the mummy’s head: How the FBI helped crack a 4,000-year-old case
- Parole? No thanks. Man turns down freedom for a better chance on the outside
- Environmental group is turning Hawaii’s ocean waste into energy
- Lives of 5000 Children and their Families Improved through Volunteer Support
- Warriors’ Hoops for Kids Program Donates $450,000 to Youth in the Bay Area
- GR company testing autism treatment drug
- Illinois woman turns 111, credits longevity to faith, Bible on iPad
- Chicago pizza delivery woman moved to tears after church honors her with incredible tip
- Boy trapped in toxic sewage pipe for over 12 hours rescued
- Maryland woman gives sheltered 26-year-old cat a new home
- ‘One-in-a-million’: Woman had son, then twins €” and now has given birth to triplets
- “Doctor Who” Fan Builds TARDIS-Inspired Free Library in Detroit
- Donte DiVincenzo leads Villanova to NCAA championship in 79-62 win over Michigan
- ‘Even though I couldn’t see it, I knew it was the one’: Incredible pictures show the moment a blind bride-to-be who lost her vision at 27 finds her dream wedding dress
- Teen battling cancer is crowned honorary prom queen
- STEPHEN HAWKING’S FINAL GIFT WAS AN EASTER MEAL FOR THE HUNGRY
- US soldier in firefighter gear surprises daughters after yearlong deployment in Afghanistan
- Baaaarking mad! Lamb saved from slaughterhouse lives life as a dog in new rescue home
- Star-Studded ‘Hilarity for Charity’ Comedy Special to Benefit Alzheimer’s on Netflix This Week
- London Wants to Plant Wildflowers for All 9 Million Residents
- Family reunites with long-lost daughter after 24-year search
- ‘Firefighter’ who shows up at Ohio home has big surprise
- Donkey ‘Therapy’ Helps Autistic Young Woman Tune Into The World Around Her
- Rainbows are (literally) in the eye of the beholder
- Magical phenomena are even cooler when you understand the science behind them. The people onboard this ship also see a rainbow far off in the distance. Pixabay Rainbows are perhaps the closest things we have to real magic. They appear like beautiful, ghostly apparitions in the sky just as the rain clears and the sun peeks€¦
- Family reveals son, 2, miraculously woke up from coma day after being taken off life support
- Here’s a great excuse to stop mowing your lawn
- Ex-Astros coach returns to throw out first pitch months after nearly dying from brain injury
- Bulgarians Are Letting Storks Inside Their Homes To Save Them From Freezing
- Maryland woman gives sheltered 26-year-old cat a new home
- Prime perk: Everything in Amazon’s new sample section is either $2 or $4 with full credit
- 97-year-old flexes muscles at namesake powerlifting event
- 2-Year-Old Makes Miraculous Recovery After Parents Turn Off Life Support