All stories are about people, and editors sometimes need a reminder

Saturday morning, Jan. 1. I read a moderately interesting piece in the Denver Post about how the Baby Boomers start turning 65 today. It is a longish front page piece that jumps to the inside and concludes with a quote from a researcher at the Pew Center, saying that as a generation, "We are pretty glum." Okay. Depressing.

Once I have roamed through the Post, I turn on my Kindle, download the New York Times, and find the same article, now discovering that it was written by Dan Barry. This is probably a sad commentary, but I began reading the piece again. Imagine my surprise at finding that the Post editor had chopped the feature just before it became what I expect from Dan Barry (that is, insightful and people-focused)!

You see, Mr. Barry had tracked down one of three Americans who might qualify as the first Baby Boomers born (on Jan. 1, 1946), and that person lives in Buffalo. But we don't meet him until after "We are pretty glum."

It turns out that this first Baby Boomer has quite a story to tell -- he was not a newsmaker, not an inventor, just an ordinary guy, but his story is fascinating. Denver Post readers were not allowed to meet Aloysius Nachreiner, but you can meet him by going here. The web-version of the piece comes in two parts. The whole thing is worth reading, but be sure to meet Aloysius in part 2. Oh, and then bookmark Dan Barry's page so you can come back and enjoy "This Land" regularly.

If I had one piece of advice to share it would be: there are no stories about the Baby Boom -- there are stories about individuals born in that generation. There are no stories about girls basketball -- only stories about girls basketball players, coaches, spouses of coaches, team managers... There are no stories about American education -- there are only stories about individual students, teachers, custodians, food service workers... you get the picture.

And if you are looking to remind young journalists that they need to focus on people as we begin a new semester, think about pointing them to Dan Barry's latest.