News Deserts

[Slacker]

Wow. Absolute opposite experience I've had with most photographers at my shops (20-plus years in print, from 30K to major metro).

One guy, I swear, if he had advance knowledge of a presidential assassination, he wouldn't have bothered to work it if it were one minute past his out-the-door time OR if it was the opposite direction from the office as his home.

One of my shops had, for a time, a lifetime employment pledge ... basically, you had to try really, really hard to get fired. In my time, two employees got fired. Both were photographers.

I have had experience with exceptions, of course, people whose professionalism and talent were admirable. When I found out one guy was assigned to shoot a prep soccer game, I was so jazzed I called the schools and got rosters faxed (pre e-mail) to me so I could give them to the photographer just so he had one less thing to worry about.

Wow, that's too bad.

Every place I've been, we've always had great photogs. It really enhances the paper or website every forkin' day.

Unsung heroes all, too. Some of the best journalists I've worked with have always been the fearless men and women photogs.

 

[dixiehack]

The photographers I worked with ranged from neurotic to prima donnas worthy of a wide receiver room. But they all busted ass to do good work.

 

[Huggy]

Dead serious, I find my local news on the local subreddit. Kinda sucks that it's come to that, but ...

Me too, if there's some issue in my part of the Toronto suburbs I go there first to see if someone else has noticed/reported it

 

[jr/shotglass]

My formerly really good local newspaper has been purged of just about every decent reporter with any sort of institutional knowledge, either because of buyouts or people just getting out of the business. Now I see a bunch of young kids who never would have been hired directly writing 4-graf blurbs from press releases with bylines on them. And there seems to be no sense of urgency. If something happens, I'm likely to find something on a TV station website first. It is really sad.

The byline thing will always anger me.

You don't sit in your cubby, write a four-graf blurb off a press release and put your name on it. Reporters who do that should be shamed mercilessly.

 

[LanceyHoward]

I think the most arid of the deserts are suburbs. After World War II many good suburban papers developed. Economically these papers did not tend to attract much advertising support from the local department store chains but could make a publisher very rich from the classifieds and small merchants, The demise of the classifieds revenue has lead to either their consolidation into what is effectively one consolidated paper with the individual staffs being almost eliminated or disappearing all together.

For example, how many suburban papers still publish in the Denver area? I know Longmont and Boulder are still around if you want to count Boulder County as part of the metro area. The Aurora Sentinel is trying to make it as a non-profit but is there anyone else? For example, I don't think there is any paper published in Douglas County which as a population of around 400,000 and an average household income well north of 100K. The Denver Post has gone through a lot of cutbacks and does not have the staff to cover the suburbs.

 

[Liut]

The byline thing will always anger me.

You don't sit in your cubby, write a four-graf blurb off a press release and put your name on it. Reporters who do that should be shamed mercilessly.

+1
I know one guy who "writes" four-graph automobile accident blurbs for his weekly from information "gleaned" from the state highway patrol's website.
With a byline.
Now, a crime scene report? That's too much work.
Oh, it just occurred to me. Last year, the dude managed to have bylined high school football gamers ... when he wasn't there.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

One day just before 4 p.m., all of our photogs go hauling ass across the newsroom for the exit to downstairs and out of the building.

Five minutes later, we look out the window, and half the city cops have a couple of guys down and handcuffed across the street.

Failed bank robbery, right before the lobby closed for the day. Photogs, always dialed into the police scanner, got some nice shots.

Of course, that was long ago. Way back in 1995.

The afternoon shift was strolling into the office one day when a passing car went out of control, hit a young girl on the sidewalk and pinned her under the chassis. One of the paper's page designers was on the scene with some other bystanders, and they managed to lift the car off the girl and free her. I can't remember whether we got a photo.

 

[Pilot]

Can I live in a new desert if the local paper is still alive and kicking and printing 6 days a week? Because god damn, they struggle mightily to get coverage of anything within the week it happened.

A local radio person has taken to breaking all the news in town. It's never deep, often just a Facebook post. No idea how that's paying any bills. But I'll give her credit, she does show up. She's freaking everywhere. She's one person and the paper still has a staff of 5-6 and you'd swear it was the opposite. If you want to know where those sirens are going or what that smokes from, she's who you turn to. I think the editor of the paper has taken a tragically flawed "we'll do it a few days late but get the WHOLE story" approach. I usually don't care what was on fire 3 days ago.

But seriously, if local radio person ever realizes she's busting her ass all around the county 24/7 and not adding anything to her station's bottom line, the area will basically be without anyone even trying to cover breaking news, and that's scary.

 

[DanOregon]

I don't know how many breaking news reports I've read that have had no follow-up because the public agency involved doesn't respond. And that's if there is even someone there to ask questions in the first place.

 

[LanceyHoward]

Can I live in a new desert if the local paper is still alive and kicking and printing 6 days a week? Because god damn, they struggle mightily to get coverage of anything within the week it happened.

A local radio person has taken to breaking all the news in town. It's never deep, often just a Facebook post. No idea how that's paying any bills. But I'll give her credit, she does show up. She's freaking everywhere. She's one person and the paper still has a staff of 5-6 and you'd swear it was the opposite. If you want to know where those sirens are going or what that smokes from, she's who you turn to. I think the editor of the paper has taken a tragically flawed "we'll do it a few days late but get the WHOLE story" approach. I usually don't care what was on fire 3 days ago.

But seriously, if local radio person ever realizes she's busting her ass all around the county 24/7 and not adding anything to her station's bottom line, the area will basically be without anyone even trying to cover breaking news, and that's scary.

I am surprised there is still a full time radio reporter in your market. Before the Reagan FCC there was a licensing requirement that radio stations had to offer news. Stations would run a newscast every hour. However the FCC eliminated that requirement and radio newsmen soon went the way of the dinosaurs. I read that Denver was down to one radio newsman, exclusive of the anchors on the KOA morning news black.

I also think that you need to define local paper. Where is the paper being printed? Newspapers are frequently being printed hundreds of miles away. Local staff will be skeletal. Can such a product still be called local?

 

[maumann]

I've worked with tremendous photographers who would stay and get award-winning pics of mundane events. And then there was one guy who just couldn't be bothered on football Friday nights because it required him to work past 5. One night, he took a photo of the team running through the banner -- and left. Turned out kid from the local team not only ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown but had three return TDs during the game. But I had a photo of the team running through the banner as lead art.

And around here (podunk northeast Georgia mountains), the guy who owns the local AM daytimer has lived here all his life, and the police and fire call him when they've got something brewing. In the county over, the local paper is really good about putting injury accidents and fires on their website very quickly. But I know a lot of stuff falls through the cracks because nobody has enough staff to dig any deeper.

 

[LanceyHoward]

The photographers I worked with ranged from neurotic to prima donnas worthy of a wide receiver room. But they all busted ass to do good work.

This is interesting. If photographers belong in the wide receiver room what room do you belong in?

Personally I think I belong in the offensive lineman's room. Intelligent and reliable. Though I admit my wife continually tells me that I have very poor self awareness.