Our readers have given us many encouraging comments that let us know Walker Talk is being read and the publication is working. Suggestions for improvement are also offered. One critique that has been mentioned several times concerns promoting safe operating practices; some of our customer profile stories show workers or operators not wearing “proper” protective clothing and devices. The idea is that Walker Talk should set the example of safe practice and require our story subjects to wear the appropriate gear for the photos, even if they don’t wear it in actual practice.
While the point of promoting safety in the magazine is well made, if it is not “real” it would violate one of our guiding principles for the publication: Walker Talk will tell the truth. We make it a point to not “make a story happen” or make the story appear as we would like it to appear. We have tried our best to let the customers tell their stories – including showing their Walker Mowers in “as is” condition at the “on-site” location and in actual working conditions.
In the interest of authenticity, our editorial policy is to develop customer profile stories only by an on-site visit, not a phone interview. Our editors have traveled almost 250,000 miles to gather the customer profiles. After the story is written, each customer is given the opportunity to review, make corrections and approve the story before printing. From my experience, many publications do not go to this extreme to get the story right.
What we’ve found with our on-site visits to customers has not always been ideal. Sometimes our machines are not as well-maintained or look as nice as we would like. But we have resisted all opportunities to “manipulate or stage” and have instructed our editors to tell the story as they find it and “as is”, even including a competitive lawn mower when that is part of the story. We believe telling the truth keeps Walker Talk fresh and interesting with all the wonderful variety that is found in people. And after 29 issues, telling the truth has kept Walker Talk from being the typical stale promotional piece produced by a manufacturer trying to sell lawn mowers.
We believe telling the truth and walking in the truth is the foundation of all that is valuable, good and lasting in our lives. To the best of our ability, Walker Talk is being produced to that ideal.
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