We want to share your good news

There's that old axiom of news being something that someone doesn't want published. But good news is news.

I RECENTLY posted a Thought of the Day that said, well, the cricket's over, but there is always ...

It was partly a light-hearted, let's-get-on-with-life after the Black Caps defeat in Melbourne on Sunday, but it is also interesting to test the waters and see what the mood is like after a national defeat.

Too often, the black joke about how domestic abuse reports go up after the loss of a sports team turns out not to be a joke - it's usually true.

Naturally there were the standard responses, particularly revolving around the upcoming Rugby World Cup. But what was pleasing was people pointing out other success stories over the weekend, which the cricket had overshadowed.

That included the successful campaign by the Wairarapa Cancer Society women's dragon boat team at a competition in Auckland.

The word "unreported" gets bandied about a bit when it comes to sports success, especially if it's minority sports.

People perhaps assume that a newsroom is all-seeing, receives notification of everything, and then cruelly dispenses with some stories and pursues others on the basis of some journalistic triage system. The reality is we're dependent on well-meaning club members to pass the word on that something's happening, and when.

Journalists have ways and means of finding stories.

They build contacts, they link to event pages, they friend people on Facebook.

We can surprise and amaze people with our detective work.

But when it comes to events and achievements, we would much rather be told about it. Knowledge of an event might be common among a committee, a sports club or, wider, as an intercollegiate thing. And when those people are focused on that event, it will stay in-house. The knowledge of it won't filter out to the media.

Of course, there are news events that people would rather we didn't discover.

There's that old axiom of news being something that someone doesn't want published. But good news is news.

It will stay "unreported" if it is only known among your school, club or circle of friends. Pick up a phone and tell us about it. Send in some pictures from your phone. Give us a chance to praise your good work, and let the community see it as well.