Arizona Republic changing crime coverage

Our Arizona crime coverage is changing. It has to. Here's why

 

Noble goal.

I'll believe it when I see it, but noble goal.

 

Agreed. Old habits are hard to break, especially in the newspaper business, with its unofficial motto of "How did we do it last year?"

I also thought they left a key category off this goal (I've added it, in bold):

• We gauge a story’s importance from the community and our audience, not from ourselves, police, advertisers or other news outlets.

Crime coverage has been emphasized for years because it sells newspapers/attracts viewers. And that attracts advertisers.

There are several reasons more features/"soft news" stories originate from, say, North Scottsdale rather than South Phoenix. Money might be No. 1 on the list.

 

Try the old school way of reporting Who? What? When? Where? - - and then leave the Why? to the op-ed writers a few days later.

 

Also a noble goal, and something every newspaper in the country really should do more of. We always publish the DUI arrest and never the follow-up that the person simply got probation or something.
That said, how long before this fizzles out because the reporter who originally worked the story is long gone either on their own or via the latest failed Gannett initiative and ensuing layoffs when there's finally a resolution to the case 12, 14, 18 months later, and their third replacement has no idea of the court proceedings in one of the 100 homicides that happened in Phoenix last year?

 

Yeah, that just reads like more Gannett corporate gobbledygook which will be forgotten about six months from now. They’ll do a couple of things to show that “we’ve changed!” and then go right back to most of the old stuff once people stop paying attention. Rinse, repeat.