Local news business model
Atrios disagrees with Ezra Klein over the decline of news. Ezra argues that when newspapers close D. C. bureaus, we are losing journalists that wrote popular stories that didn’t matter as opposed to ones that did. Atrios says that what should be happening in newspapers is they should devote more time to local news, even if it’s less sexy than Washington politics.
Much of what’s written about Washington politics is fluff that doesn’t matter in the end, but the presence of a local bureau (say from Minneapolis) can help keep representatives from their district honest, they can search through federal records about their locale, and help answer the question “how does this affect me.”
That’s why newspapers should have a D. C. bureau, but unfortunately they cover the latest outrage, or the lurid details of a non-local politician’s life, or what kind of shoes the first lady’s wearing.
I do agree with Atrios that there needs to be a good business model for good local news. Local TV does a better job because it puts resources into doing that, newspapers should do the same. The solution, for now, is to rely on “citizen journalism,” which one of my professors calls “citizens journaling” because they don’t do what journalists do, or should do: verify the facts and check them thoroughly.
The Chi-Town Daily news in Chicago’s got the right idea by hiring full-time reporters with newly received grant money. Maybe the next step would be local neighborhood reporters.
Comment by Frank Edwards
Thanks for the nod to the Daily News Robert. We think that combining the insight of local residents as volunteer neighborhood reporters with the seasoned skills of professionals will deliver a high-quality local news report.
Posted on March 20, 2009 at 2:27 pm