re: aldon's post
Tracy Record, WSB Editor
For all the fuss and hue and cry about "if newspapers die, who goes to the City Council meeting" -- I don't see the local paper at 95% of the meetings we cover, and that's not because those meetings don't matter. The neighborhood groups and City Hall briefings are where much of the news gets made.
And it's not just meetings. Our reporter at the on-the-road playoff game for the high-school football team that had its most successful season in 40 years was the ONLY reporter from this community to cover the game. We paid a freelancer to spend three weeks in a courtroom covering the ONLY murder case from last year in our community to go to trial - an 18-year-old with a stunning tale of childhood sexual abuse and self-defense - eventually, emotionally, exonerated (I was able to join our freelancer in the courtroom for the announcement of the verdict - wow). That story not only was ignored by the local paper, it was even ignored by the citywide papers. (?????) But the state (and therefore the taxpayers) may end up paying damages to the exonerated teenager, for wrongfully prosecuting a self-defense case, so I'd say we all have a stake in it.
And I could bore you all with a dozen other examples from this week alone, of stories we broke through a variety of means ... from phone calls to meeting attendance to tips from sources.
The deficiencies of some media outlets are NOT a matter of budget cuts or whatever else. It's a matter of priorities. News is being redefined continuously according to its relevancy. That doesn't mean journalists (and NEWS BLOGGERS ARE JOURNALISTS!!!!!!! and I don't just mean ones like me who have significant old-media experience) shouldn't cover the Big Important Stories ... but it means that if you set priorities that ignore the "little" stories, the potholes and the burglaries and the tagging vandalism and "why did five fire engines go racing by?", you do so at your own peril. I have seen publicly voiced statements from old-media people in this region expressing disdain for such coverage. Such dismissals make it clear, they have lost touch with their community, if they ever were in touch at all. So for those who continue to express such disdain... to quote Yoda while he was training Luke, when the protege failed to buy into something obvious...
..."And that is why you fail."