I really liked John Robinson’s blog post about fixing local news, so I tweeted about it:
Every local editor should read this post by @johnrobinson & ask & answer how you’re going to fix local news: johnlrobinson.com/2012/12/fix-lo… — Steve Buttry (@stevebuttry) December 29, 2012
Since I was tweeting after midnight, I figured my tweet might go unnoticed. But 20 people retweeted it and 17 favorited it (not all the same people). And a couple people responded. Cory Bergman, general manager of Breaking News, offered a valid criticism:
@stevebuttry don’t most local news execs know the core problem still exists? that article merely restates it without solution. — Cory Bergman (@corybe) December 29, 2012
Then Lisa P. White, a Digital First Media colleague who covers the communities of Martinez and Pleasant Hill, Calif., for the Contra Costa Times, responded with several tweets.
@stevebuttry As a city reporter this banal criticism of local news annoys me. What are the fresh, creative ways to cover local news? — Lisa P. White (@lisa_p_white) December 29, 2012
@stevebuttryAlso, there’s a lot of room between meetings coverage and long investigations. City reporters are writing those stories, too. — Lisa P. White (@lisa_p_white) December 29, 2012
@stevebuttry Isn’t it incumbent on local papers to write about the city budget, public employee contracts etc.? Not the most exciting topics — Lisa P. White (@lisa_p_white) December 29, 2012
@stevebuttry but aren’t we supposed to keep public agencies and pols accountable? And document how tax dollars are spent? — Lisa P. White (@lisa_p_white) December 29, 2012
@stevebuttry Folks think they won’t miss local papers because they have no idea that local TV news just rips us off most of the time. — Lisa P. White (@lisa_p_white) December 29, 2012
@stevebuttryIt’s easy to say ‘change local news’ without offering viable ideas. Not saying it’s perfect, but it’s not terrible either. — Lisa P. White (@lisa_p_white) December 29, 2012
While I still think John raised some valid observations about the need to rethink how we cover local news, the questions and criticisms were also valid. So I’m going to encourage John to share some specific suggestions to improve local news. (Update: John has responded.) But I’ll also note that I shared some suggestions earlier this month, asking what newsrooms should stop doing and earlier this year, I posted about how Digital First reporters on any beat should change their work and about beat blogs.
I’ll continue here with some more thoughts on how a newsroom might change some or all of its beats: (more…)
The Buttry Diary 