Thursday, January 18, 2024

More local news isn't the (total) answer for local newspapers

Good piece here from two academics. The TL/DR is that more local features stories and things like that has to be part of the issue.

And, yeah, corporate media can sort of do remote stories about city council meetings and other local government meetings, getting agendas off websites and emailing city managers, county executives and school superintendents.

But, the only way to do a feature story about someone who has biked across the country for a cancer fundraiser is to interview them. The only way to do a story about a business' 100th anniversary is to get history out of local archives and talk to people.

And, this says nothing of photos for things like this.

Nor does it consider local lifestyles type stories from or about clubs and organizations. Even if that is submitted, somebody local and onsite will know how much, or how little, play a particular submission needs.

And, that takes people power, on site. Period.

The pair even cite statistics that coverage of local elections does NOT spike local news readership.

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