News Deserts

[Pilot]

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?

Eh, she does some anchoring too, I guess? Or hosting of some music blocks. Not sure. Not a radio guy, if you can't tell! It's frankly impressive how everpresent she's made herself, but I'm not sure what the endgame is, besides making the paper look stupid on a daily basis. The paper's approach left an opening and she's filled it, but again, it seems like a heck of a lot of work and driving and events for what mostly amounts to unmonitized Facebook posts.

As for the paper, printed 3 hours away for the past 8-9 years, owned out of state for the last 2-3. Surely deadlines are a big factor in what makes it in print the next day, but, they really need an editor who can pound the desk and say "I don't care what you're doing! Get me the story ASAP!" and not "Eh, yeah, I guess it's fine to hold it another day."

I've had both. Both benefitted my career in certain ways, but when you go too long without the former, that urgency can really bleed out of a newsroom to the point where the "news" part of "newspaper" doesn't even fit.

 

[Pilot]

Eh, she does some anchoring too, I guess? Or hosting of some music blocks. Not sure. Not a radio guy, if you can't tell! It's frankly impressive how everpresent she's made herself, but I'm not sure what the endgame is, besides making the paper look stupid on a daily basis. The paper's approach left an opening and she's filled it, but again, it seems like a heck of a lot of work and driving and events for what mostly amounts to unmonitized Facebook posts.

As for the paper, printed 3 hours away for the past 8-9 years, owned out of state for the last 2-3. Surely deadlines are a big factor in what makes it in print the next day, but, they really need an editor who can pound the desk and say "I don't care what you're doing! Get me the story ASAP!" and not "Eh, yeah, I guess it's fine to hold it another day."

I've had both. Both benefitted my career in certain ways, but when you go too long without the former, that urgency can really bleed out of a newsroom to the point where the "news" part of "newspaper" doesn't even fit.

I mean, we've had a sitting US Senator and the governor have separate, unrelated visits in our small-ish, out-of-the-way city in the last two days and there's not a photo or an article mentioning either or what they were here for (one visited a school to promote a state-wide program, the other held a town hall. Politicians of that caliber might visit once every year or two?)

There was a large, locally produced but nationally relevant (in that niche, anyway) cycling race here with thousands of riders last weekend and the coverage was one post-race results story. No preview. No features. No explanation of what roads would have extra traffic. No examination of trends in the sport or the event. No check-in with locals who participated. Just a story with some quotes from the winner.

 

[dixiehack]

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.

Once I went to the desk full time I belonged with the defensive backs. Because if something got past us, it was a touchdown for the bad guys and showing up on the Jumbotron for the whole world to see.

 

[I Should Coco]

Once I went to the desk full time I belonged with the defensive backs. Because if something got past us, it was a touchdown for the bad guys and showing up on the Jumbotron for the whole world to see.

We had a silly but embarrassing headline typo get through back at my old shop, more than a decade ago, that still haunts me.

My boss was relatively cool about it, saying something like "even the best closers blow a lead once in a while. But don't let it happen again."

 

[I Should Coco]

Eh, she does some anchoring too, I guess? Or hosting of some music blocks. Not sure. Not a radio guy, if you can't tell! It's frankly impressive how everpresent she's made herself, but I'm not sure what the endgame is, besides making the paper look stupid on a daily basis. The paper's approach left an opening and she's filled it, but again, it seems like a heck of a lot of work and driving and events for what mostly amounts to unmonitized Facebook posts.

As for the paper, printed 3 hours away for the past 8-9 years, owned out of state for the last 2-3. Surely deadlines are a big factor in what makes it in print the next day, but, they really need an editor who can pound the desk and say "I don't care what you're doing! Get me the story ASAP!" and not "Eh, yeah, I guess it's fine to hold it another day."

I've had both. Both benefitted my career in certain ways, but when you go too long without the former, that urgency can really bleed out of a newsroom to the point where the "news" part of "newspaper" doesn't even fit.

It also doesn't help when a paper reduces the number of days for the print edition and/or switches to mail delivery, causing deadlines to move way early. Too few people struggling to put the paper out make the promises of posting everything immediately online fade rather fast.

The attitude of "we'll get that/post that/follow up on that" after deadline becomes contagious ...

 

[Hermes]

By the end of my newspaper days and I was working another full-time job just to pay for health insurance and trying to put out a weekly in a two-man office alongside a geriatric reporter who was counting the days until he could retire, I was in the closet where the mascot changed.

 

[Dog8Cats]

Once I went to the desk full time I belonged with the defensive backs. Because if something got past us, it was a touchdown for the bad guys and showing up on the Jumbotron for the whole world to see.

Exact analogy an ASE I worked for used.

 

[Batman]

It also doesn't help when a paper reduces the number of days for the print edition and/or switches to mail delivery, causing deadlines to move way early. Too few people struggling to put the paper out make the promises of posting everything immediately online fade rather fast.

The attitude of "we'll get that/post that/follow up on that" after deadline becomes contagious ...

This hits home as I embark on another football season. I hate getting beat by our local competition — a shirtty website that has gained audience share largely by chasing every call on the scanner and apparently developing a teleporter to beat the cops and firemen to the scene — but I've never had anybody yell at me for getting a story online at 12:30 a.m. instead of 11 p.m. But if I stop to do that and I'm 30 minutes late sending pages for the print edition and it causes us to miss our delivery deadline to the post office on Saturday morning, I would fully expect there to be heck to pay.

 

[Slacker]

Exact analogy an ASE I worked for used.

In the movie, that guy is played by Andy deck.

https://media.tenor.com/8dl-cO8gAQ4AAAAd/spaz-andy-deck-matthew-news-radio-joe-rogan-phil-hartman.gif

 

[Deskgrunt50]

At my last place, I'd say I was an offensive lineman on a title-winning team full of excellent players, with a few Hall of Famers.

But then the team was sold and the new front office decided to fire all the coaches and cut most of the players, so I pretty much covered every position on both sides of the ball.

It was less than ideal.

 

[Slacker]

You can't win if you're not allowed to score.

That's pretty much what it felt like from 2008 on.

 

[JimmyHoward33]

Someone that won a seat on my local school comm a few months ago resigned. Why? Dunno

Some aren't happy with the appointed replacement, who didnt run, when some of the runners up say they were discussed to be appointed.

Havent had time to read the actual by laws as far as appointments go so I dunno who's right

Not a word in our paper (or any paper) about any of it.

This constitutes a news desert yeah?