Im the president of the National Press club germinal is an institute where we work to close the gap between journalism and civic engagement. Program meets that head on. The most important journalism that happens in this city is done by regional reporters. Should i say again . I really believe it. The most important journalism that happens in the city is done by regional reporters. [applause] regional reporters are watching washington for americas hometowns, so the people of the United States can make informed decisions about their lives, and about their democracy. And this type of journalism and the selfgovernment that it enables, is one of the most Important Reasons that we have a First Amendment protection for freedom of the press. Anniversary ofh the regional reporters association, youre going to hear about the challenges reporters face. You already know what they are, shrinking resources, diminished public trust, and growing fake news, but youre also going to hear about the impact of regional reporting from some of the very best in the business on this panel, and in this room. And were going to look ahead to the future of regional reporting. And as we look at the future of journalism, it will rest in the hands of people like tonights Tamar Hallerman a very valued member of the National Press club, the atlanta journalconstitutions washington correspondent. Your hallerman thank julie. And thanks all. Thank you for coming, i am tomorrow holloman from the atlanta journalconstitution. And in the president of the regional reporters association. Rra is a professional developing group for print, tv and radio reporters. D. C. For organizations based outside the beltway. We formed 30 years ago on the idea that we could offer tips and pointers to each other without comprising competition. They also found we could severe care or interviews with highprofile secure more interviews with highprofile newsmakers if we work together. And we have had successes in the last 30 years. As regional reporters were facing the same challenges as every other partner in d. C. , media access is tightening. The president readily seek to undermine our credibility. Media hasst in the been on the client. And doctored videos spreading up online are not making our lives easier. But we regional reporters face unique challenges. Craig list, facebook, and free online news sites have taken massive bites out of the local news business. A lot of our parent comedies are tightening their belts. Many have closed or columns holiday did their Washington Bureaus, and laid off closed or consolidated their Washington Bureaus. I would know. My newspaper had about two dozen reporters covering politics and policy in the Washington Bureau. Its sale is expected to go through at the end of the year. I will soon be the sole cox reporter based in d. C. We all know the work that regional reporters do is vital or important important to democracy. Tabs on stateeps congressional delegations as we do, and the local impact of federal policy like we do. With a closing a small and mediumsize newspapers across the country, i work is as essential as ever. That leads me to today and are great panel. I want to look at how the landscape for regional reporting has changed since rra was created 30 years ago. And how we can rebuild trust and best inform our readers at a time when civil discourse seems to be cratering. On that note, i would like to introduce our panel. From the pew Research Mark barthel, who spoke works on whose work focuses on u. S. Public committing of the news media, jury mill is him and social media. We have Jerry Zremski who serves as a Washington Bureau chief a buffalo news. Congressman jim who is elected to congress and mayor of alexandra, virginia. Next to him we have former collison congressman ryan a. Costello who represented philadelphia and retired last year. He has his own Committee Case and firm. Mutations firm. I will keep an eye out communications firm. I will keep an eye out in case of questions. I will also save time at the end for questions and would like to hear about peoples experiences being regional reporters, and how people of adopted in this original reporting environment. Would like to start with you. You have been original reporter in d. C. Since 1989. Can you paint a picture for us of how your job has changed over the years . Im sure youre spending a lot less time with facts machine a lot more time on twitter. Yes things have changed. When i got here i covered bill paxton and i called him faxing paxton because i got some of the faxes. The changes i think regional arerters change face similar to what reporters face generally. First of all, we are filing all the time now. If something is breaking, i file it right away. Or i tweeted right away. So i kinda feel like my job never ends now. Yet at the same time, there certain kinds of coverage that i have pulled back from. When i got here i was part of a twoperson bureau. We try to cover everything. We had a member of Commerce Congress who chaired a committee. We would try to go to all the hearings and cover those hearings. Over time, we cut back on the only reporter i am the only reporter now. And im tasked with doing mostly enterprise work. Work that is going to end up on the front page of the paper or get a ton of hits online. This a good is change or not a good chain . I am uncertain. It would be great to still be able to be the newspaper of record in washington for buffalo new york. At the same time, regional reporters can also get too much into the weeds. And ive seen this happen. And not write the really good important impact stories about what is really happening for the readers. And what the delegation is really doing. So the way regional reporting has changed for me is that i have gone much more into that direction, much more away from process. Process stories. Tamar hallerman the social media maker job easier or harder . Made itemski it has both easier and harder. It is made it such that i have to be alert to social media, and i have to follow it all day long. And i have to use it when appropriate. So that has made it more complicated. I ami said, i feel like never not working. The good thing about it is that i feel much more interconnected. A lot of reporters say, dont read the comments. Well, i read the comments. Believe it or not, i get stories from the comments. I will give you an example. A couple of weeks ago i did a story about the delays in the construction of a new Veterans Cemetery in western new york. There was this vague comment from a guy who said, im a veteran. And i own a business. I wish the government would stop trying to help me. So i figured, im going to reach out to the sky. So i do. He tells me all about these rules that i did not know about, Legislation Congress passed in 2006, the required that the cemetery be built by a Company Owned by a veteran with a serviceconnected disability. While there having a hard time finding a company that qualifies. So i got a really good frontpage story, only because of social media, only because i could interact with a reader that i would not otherwise have even heard from 30 years ago. Tamar hallerman so i want to hear from the two former congressman now. Im interested because both of you served in local government before you made it to capitol hill. Congress meant costello, you are on the board of commissioners. And mr. Costello, youre on the city council . You both have regional reporters covering you for hometown audiences. He also National Reporters interested in you. Im curious what that is like, particularly how your relationships with the Regional Press might have differed from some of those other reporters. Its an excellent question. As frustrating as it might be as a regional reporter to deal with the changes in the industry, i found it very frustrating as an elected official. Because the rules of the game have changed. Theby that i mean cultivation of a relationship with the reporter. I am looking to earn your trust that what im saying is actually true. Im looking to earn your trust that what im working on is something that might be newsworthy. Stories toion of feed for your consideration, so that over a. Of years, your local electorate is reading your independently verified recitation of what im doing to validate me as an elected official. Someone was working hard. Mean, that is the nutrition that a politician needs in order to withstand a wave, in a wave election year. And to engender goodwill in the community. Soccer practice, kids in school, professional life. People do not Pay Attention to what we are doing. Very often. And so, for decades, and up through my, i was in Public Service starting when i was public 25, im 42 now. I was schooled in that era, and then twitter. 2015, 2016. Where it really seems that the way to get your message out has changed. Are buying aple newspaper, or relying on and in myeporters case the Philadelphia Inquirer and the more local papers which have been bought up by one of the three or four hedge funds out there. Ryan costello it becomes a real challenge. And i would submit that because the rules of the game have changed, there are some elected officials who saw it coming. And i will get into this later because i do not talk too much at the inception of this. Comingliticians saw that and got in front of it with stuff that clicked, bait and stuff that creates sensationalism. And some who i would argue are theer at doing what constitution prescribes that they actually do, do not know what the new rules of the game are. And they suffer. And i would argue that our democracy suffers as a insequence of the breakdown accountabilityls by print media, consumption of print media by citizens in elected officialsconstituency. For as much as it is a business challenge for your industry, i think it is a real credibility challenge for elected officials to breakthrough to their youtituency in a way, when do not have citizens relying on the service that you provide is a part of a Business Model, and frankly under the First Amendment as this what it was contemplated that a free press would do an open society. ,sr hallerman memorandum, you are in washington a very long time and social media came about in your last couple of years. Did you find you are changing what you were talking to your constituents about, or what people wanted from you, the inquiries youre getting from your constituents, where they becoming more nationalized, as there were fewer regionals around to talk to . Jim moran yes. The problem with social media, and i do not mean this in the way it will be perceived, is that there is no way to regulate it. As a result, you do not know what youre getting. You do not know who is sending it. You do not know how representative it is. Whether reallyw is a person. It could be a bot. So, it is unreliable. It is untrustworthy. And i do not think it is particular informative. And invariably it is superficial. The tweets, the emails that you overwhelmedy are with people who just have snarky comments to make. Part. Tless for the most so it is not a substitution for anything. T. And often it is disgruntled people. There was a time when people would write a letter to you, and it was really offbase, and we would send a form letter back. Thatgret to inform you someone is using your name sending misguided letters. If we find out who it is, we will refer them to the Mental Health institution. [laughter] but you cannot do that anymore. Because it is just too much. Find that social isia, for the most part terribly informative. I represent Northern Virginia which is part of the washington metro area. Most people get the Washington Post. Though, andnities, fortunately these local papers are still surviving, we would still have local papers. The local papers serve an extraordinarily important purpose, particularly from the perspective of a politician for the post, and the post is better than most, frankly. So i did not single them out in any negative way. It of erica paper. That and that it is a very good paper. That in the New York Times are two of the best papers and as far as im concerned two of the more reliable papers most reliable papers in the world during but it is tough to get space in the metro section unless there is a scandal. If there is a scandal or a controversial policy issue, youll get space. But if you are a wellrun government doing the right thing , that is responsive, that is competent, that is taking issues as they come, deliberating on responsibly, you are never going to get your name mentioned. Forget about it. Their only hope is to only have a network of personal friends and go to every possible reception and every soccer game and so on. That is not a bad thing. But youre never going to get any press. And it make you vulnerable, because when you do mess up, and everybody is human, people do not know all the good things that you have done. That is just a function of the fact that there are what, 7 Million People in the washington metro area. There may benity, a hundred thousand at most, a small fraction of that would ask to get the paper. Mass, you have a critical you cannot even get advertising revenue. So the cohesiveness of community itself, and the motivation for electric reps intent elected representatives to work hard, serve the people and get some amount of credit for doing so, is lost. In some communities it may be gone forever. Erodes the whole etoqueville, that we are country built on local democracy. You have to have coverage. Tamar hallerman i want to bring haveke because at pew you done a lot of research into local, last national national, and regional trends. You had a really cool thing where you could see the local news ecosystem of different towns and you could see all of these news deserts everywhere. Can you talk with me about some of the trends you have seen in local and National News around the country. Michael barthel sure and that tool is available at journa lism. Org, if you want to punch in an area you can see the results. The local fox station was named thehe number one source in bestie region. So they have capitalized on that and put on buses. In thed. C. Reason d. C. Region. There have been kind of a downward trend. Ad revenue fallen by half. Circulation fallen by half. Newsroom staffing followed by half in the last 10 years. Today more people get news from social media than from print. It has risen that much. That is not even taking into account websites and apps. Taken together, Online Sources have started to rival tv, as americas number one source of news. Local news isfor that local news organizations are more highly trusted the National News organizations. And much more highly trusted then social media. Only 4 of americans say they have a lot of trust for social media. But those numbers highlight the challenges as well to a certain extent. Because lots of people get news from social media but do not trust it. We ask folks what you like about getting news from social media and what we heard was convenience. People like that they can pick up their phone and opened up and there is a stream of news. There to sample from whenever they have a free moment. To a certain are, extent, making the Digital Transition at her than some other sectors. Their audiences about halfandhalf digital versus their legacy products. Radio is more like 7525. There still more dependent on broadcast. 7525. The internet is definitely coming up from behind. We have seen a decline in the number of regional reporters covering congress. That are coming from daily newspapers. The number from daily newspapers fell over a fiveyear. Does he arise from what we called niche outlets, bloomberg , as wellpublications as eight truck slight rise in digital native news sites. As well as a slight rise in digital native news sites. Having that correspondence seems to make a difference. Aere story was written by regional correspondent, they are more likely to Cover Congress from a member of congress. If that trend continues, that would have application for the coverage folks are seeing back home. Tamar hallerman those trends you mentioned are reflective of the members we have in rra. 20 years ago we had 230 members and now we are down to 65. We are still getting new people and that is wonderful. But i do want to talk a little bit about what this downward trend, the repercussions of all of that. Jerry, you have done amazing work digging into commerce mike collins and some of his financial stock trades that he was making that maybe were not so kosher. Stories like that maybe would not be covered, but could you talk a little bit about that. That i want to talk to the congressman as well about how, because of the decline of local news, how that has changed the way folks have interacted with you. Even with fewer local news sources. So lets start with you jerry and govern there. Go from there. Jerry zremski i do think that basically you have a situation where congress is a very complicated animal. A lot of things are happening in congress all the time. All of these members are out there raising money to get reelected. Andre is potential im not one of those reporters who believes that people come here to congress to make money, or to make for themselves, i really think there are a lot of very good Public Servants but there are those who do things therere untoward. And if are not regional reporters covering them, i think that the odds of those untoward things been reported are probably much lower. So i do not think it is a good thing for democracy. I think that is good thing to have checks and balances in every way. And i think an independent press can is well resourced provide that kind of a check. And i do not know where well go eventually. I wonder if there would be more scandal over time, simply because in some communities, people are not watching the store. Tamar hallerman i want to talk to congress and costello briefly. When we were chatting, you mentioned how in your district you had five local newspapers. And four out of five were bought by hedge fund. Then the fifth just closed its doors. Ryan costello yes delco times in Delaware County because mina, times herald among curry county, daily local news in chester county, are all now owned by a hedge fund. The reading eagle, which i thought was going to make it is now been gobbled up by the same one. So what you have is rather than each one of those papers leaning on the front page with their meniscal news, local interest stories, weather, all of the typical stuff. Now, 80 of the stories in each one of those papers is identical to what is in the others. There is a little, maybe one local bee doing a meniscal news it is when you nickel one youd municipal beat reporter doing news but that is it. What i was growing up, i enjoyed the Public Service. I was wanted to do it. You learn about your local officials in that paper. You see the ones that move up the ladder and what they do and how they go abouti do want to say how they go about manipulating the local paperbut making sure theyre in the local paper. [laughter] there is an art to making sure youre in the local paper. If i know that you are covering the puppies the pretty poppy competition every year, im going to go to the pretty puppy competition. [laughter] youre going to go to cover whatever, im going to go to that. It can drive a little bit of what your district work schedule is. And one other point i want to you or do not know if someone else, but if you look in terms of local governments that are in areas where there are news deserts, tend to borrow more money. You start seeing these trends related to government behavior that are not necessarily good. Or at least without that accountability, and not knowing why certain decisions are made, it just introduces more potential for wrongdoing, or the potential for wrongdoing to happen. Needs to bek also mentioned. All five of them within the last 10 years, and a couple within the last two years. Tamar hallerman a question for you and congressman moran. You talk about social media but i wonder if you talk about a difference over time in the way your constituents were over interacting, or the kinds of questions they care about given the decline in local news over the years . Jim moran it is part of an broader trend. Politics has been nationalized. I spent most of my 24 years in congress on the appropriation committee. , i guess i was parochial, but i was proud of that fact. It is one of the two prerogatives the constitution grants the legislative branch. We have obviously abdicated the responsibility to declare war. We do not want to do that. The other is the power of the purse. The reason why the congress had the power of the purse is so they could serve their individual communities as best they could. And recognize and represent the diversity of those communities. And they would know best what was most needed, whether it be , orols or roads or bridges human infrastructure kinds of things. Training programs and so on, whatever it be and then they would go and fight for it. And for the better part of 200 years, members were largely judged on how well they served the interests of their community. I really think it started newt came in and 94. Desh came in in 1994. There was a nationalization in 1984. There was amore nationalization of politics in 1984. And then to show we were purer than caesars wife we eliminated air marks. Earmarks. It was abdicated to the leadership. As president obama was responsibly as any of the republican president s. He said any bill that has an appropriation any probation bill that has an earmarking it, i will veto. So he never got an appropriation bill in eight years. Which set on the government, we would have continual resolutions, we would kick the can down the road. Then the leadership on both sides, the housesenate, republican, democratic, would get together. It would be about eight of them, and they would work out the spending bills. And they would be there would be virtually nothing for individual members to write home about. To go home about. To cut ribbons. I remember being so stunned after the economic recession of put, when president obama 980 billion stimulus into the economy. But he decided not to work with the congress and deciding how that should be spent. He wants the governors. It was a little surprising since two thirds of the governors were republican. But the members got no credit for anything. Wasyet they knew best what most important for their district. So that, combined with gerrymandering, where the elections many elections are made up or determined by the primary process, elections are nationalized on cultural issues largely. Divide has widened. Is most liberal republican for conservative than the most conservative democrat now. Every year the gulf widens. It is relative to these local newspapers. I guess if you cannot bring anything home now, it does not really matter if there is nobody to cover it anyway. [laughter] what is the point of it . Into think this all falls that wetrend, tamara, are nationalizing issues. The economy, it gets concentrated, more and more mergers and acquisitions and concentration of corporate wealth, concentration of personal wealth, and concentration of political issues at the national level, instead of what i think is a more proper role for at least the house of representatives, to serve the interests of their , and thel district cultural issues are irrelevant largely. Most members spend their time serving their district and they were almost invulnerable as long as they worked hard for their district. Now they can get defeated on one cultural issue if theyre on the wrong side of it. Tamar hallerman conger Smith Costello . Ryan costello ill give you an example. How does that alter behavior. Probably five months into President Trumps term, he comes into the capital basement, hauser, and conference meeting, and we are getting whipped on some vote house conference meeting. Truck comes in, present comes in in ands trump comes says something not to release substantive, but we need to do this and if we dont get this done, i tell you what i was got this twitter thing. I just go duma, doom, doom and it is like an explosion. What he was saying was, he has twitter and if you do not get in line, he is going to tweet and it causes a big huge explosion. And if youre a republican, it does. Now it does for everybody these days. At the time, that is a whole l of a lot more compelling not to so i can for me, but for many republicans and very republican districtsthat if you want to be held accountable, the president will hold you, accountable. And that is instantaneous. So tens of thousands of your voters in five minutes or an hour, have been told whether where is my congers on this. This. My congressman on that when you think about it, visavis a regional reporter, which probably comes out the next day and print publication, with refining declining ,eadership, if you ask republican stand up to the president. Or what is it going to take for the republicans . Who are the voters . Where they getting their information . And who influences how they think . And is those who influence how they think perceptive enough to know how to push the right button . That, was there a very competitive District Health care debate. All of you know this and it probably drives you as crazy as it drove me. There are more news sites websites that perp tend to be news sites that are not news sites. But that look like it websites that pretend to be news sites. And they look like it. And you read in any think this is a joke is not accurate. A reader does not necessarily know facts from fiction. And the Cottage Industry of ideological left and ideological right news sites, which i call infotainment really. Is not hard news. And their ability to insolence readers, who are giggly want to be to influence readers who arguably want to be informed that seek to be informed without predispositions they already have, is a really difficult thing to overcome. Then you have folks calling the office. Or messaging you. Or writing emails. Someare really either times they will attach the article and say, how dare you do this. And you want to say back that is i did not do that. Or they will use a lot of the same talking points. And that is what drives a lot of congressional attitudes and behaviors and responses is where their constituents are getting their news. Tamar hallerman with that in mind did you find that it even made sense to message on really local issues . Or could you get more attention by just going on twitter . The question is whether you want attention. It is a Multimedia Communications director this year and a house office is different than four years ago to my last year. Because i think, particularly twitter, has really taken off more so. And reporters, all of you, you have to be on twitter. Right . It is not the endall beall, but you have to be everywhere, right . You do need to do the good government. We got funding for this. You need to get the statements out on if youd disagreed with the dol executive order they came. You have to do it all. And you have to be everywhere on everything. Because your voters, particularly in a competitive district, you have to worry about the 500 the care about this and the 700 the care about that. If you have a really republican a really democratic district, these days it is defined by one thing, do support the president or dont you, are you for impeachment or arent you. And why not . We have really simplified, i think to the detriment of a wellinformed citizenry. But we have really civil if id how we go about measuring our members of congress. I think the pendulum will swing back. But at the moment that is where i think we are. Tamar hallerman im going to open it up to questions in a few minutes. Before i do that, one last question for the panel. We would not be here if we do not think this kind of work was important. The problem is, all of our big bosses, none of the big fancy people who make millions of dollars have figured out how to make news profitable yet. Assuming we are not going to get a whole bunch of resources to be able to get back to where we were, how do we adapt . How do we do smart work and rebuild trust, especially given the state of our Public Discourse right now . I want to start with mike. Pugh has done some research looking at what people want in their news. Michael barthel it is very practical stuff. They want news to be accurate. They want news to cover stories thoroughly. They do want the news to be kind of fair. They emphasize that. Theres that one higher ethical consideration. A lot of it is they just want to provide information to people. We ask people what sort of local news topics are you interested in . Weather came in at number one. Traffic prime local issue. Government was about the middle. People do, to a certain extent, news debts want news that is useful to their lives. Want news that is useful. To their lives. It is tough because a lot of the smaller local outlets are going away. Mostly weekly paper so far. We are starting to see some daily papers fade as well. Local tv ise that still the number one source for peoples local news in america. But those local tv markets are huge. And so in philadelphia, people say tv. But out in allentown pennsylvania at the french than the market, print and online really does dominate. At the fringe of the market, print and online dominates. Local news is unevenly distributed in america. Some folks have tried to step up and do digital native sites. But when you look at directories of digital only sites they are very concentrated on the coasts. Theyre not a time in the middle of the country. Or even in the midatlantic. Theres a question of funding and economics there. We asked people, do you get local news from these digital only outlets. Very few people said so. You much more commonly found citizen oriented stuff like nextdoor groups, facebook groups, neighborhood groups, local churches and pta. People are self organizing local news to an extent, which has always been part of local news and people talking to each other over the back fence. Seemheyre so far do not to be a ton of outlets to replace what is being lost. Tamar hallerman jerry d. C. Was working for you and your readers . Jerry zremski we all as reporters have had to balance what we think our readers need to know, with what they what we think they would like to read. As istruck me over time look at my stories and how they perform online peer and we can do that now. A lot of and how they perform online. And we can do that now. A lot of stories you think might not resonate online because they are complicated, if theyre written in a way that says this is how it is going to affect you. It really does resonate. One of my best read stories the past month is about Climate Change, and effects Climate Change would have on the great lakes. It was a panel discussion. I went to it i asked questions. It turned into a really good, very well read story. I think as long as you are taking government and relating it to the public, there will be an audience for that. I think it is also important not to make presumptions of your degrades ort disrespects them. I will give you a quick example. I did a story a couple of months ago. I thought everybody is going to read this it is cute. This is a guy from buffalo who is the easter bunny at the white house. Nobody read it. Nobody cared. It was like my worst read story of the month. So that is a lesson to me. Sometimes you think that things are being dumbed down that people like that. Not in my experience. In my experience, the really good meaty stories are written in a way that people can relate to them, they still work online, at least a the buffalo news. Tamar hallerman congressman any thoughts on what we can do to improve civil discourse or anything like that . Jim moran it is getting worse. It starts at the top of this country. Farstandard that is worse than anything i couldve ever imagined. There is no civil discourse. It is uncivil. , uncivilthe democrats in discourse because of the political environment. An ego and selfishness and so on. I think it takes leadership. And it takes professionalism in various fields. Have, and i do not mean that we do not have very Good Television anchors. It used to be that there were people who set the standard. The president was set a standard. We would have three or four nightly news casters would set a standard. Oft had a certain amount gravitas. They would be balanced. You can trust them. Mean we do not have it now. But there would be some opinion writers that you would consistently read to be informed , but also to shape your judgment. And we had fewer flamethrowers. We had more people who kinda saw the broad issue and perhaps lent more respect to different sides. I think we have lost some of that. One of the things i wear about particularly, because i do believe that journalism is an integral element of community, of civil discourse, of recent debate, of competent government. It is foundational. I would love to find out what is happening in the good schools of journalism, whether this is a profession that brighten people want to get into. Lead, you know. Because it seems to me they look , hmmm,and they think not much respect, not much opportunity, not much pay. Maybe i will look at another profession. I think that erodes the professional community that many of us would like to think defines the United States. Can i hopping on that . I also teach at the university of maryland as an adjunct. One thing that is happened since trump selection. It is the opposite of what you might be thinking is happening. We have had a bump up of enrollment at the university of maryland. And they have had to hire more adjunct to keep to teach more classes. Because a certain number of young people have become very energized is the way i was reading about watergate in 1974. That is very interesting. Now do they get jobs . I worry about that. I certainly do. But the ones ive taught in the last year have been very engaged and very excited about the profession. Jim moran that is terrific. Say thank godto for trump. But that is encouraging news. Tamar hallerman id like to open up her questions. We have a microphone going back. In the back. Nd please identify. Communications member of the National Press club. I have enjoyed and a former journalist. Ive enjoyed the perspective of the politicians. But i think theres another perspective not being considered. That is of the Public Relations and Public Affairs professionals. N we do grassroots represent clients that want to do grassroots throughout the nation, we have less local herbst local papers to do it. Therefore it is hard to justify them investing in that. Theyre not can be covered for their efforts. That becomes more consolidated and big cities. It is also more difficult as you know to then get good coverage in a large paper like the New York Times watching post. I just wanted to bring that additional perspective to this issue. To the panel. Tamar hallerman ok. Hi, i write for the Austin American statesman and contribute to texas monthly. I wanted to give an example that iolves congressman moran. Doubt hear a memorys. In an area of another branch of government that is the judiciary. There are many court cases that are extremely important. Theyre almost always generated from any of our regional areas. The big one, and i did get to the bigh v. Gore. Ones are covered but there are many critical cases that are not. I can give an example of an extremely local one at the risk of dating myself. When congressman moran was mayor i interviewed him because there was a court case i was running writing at the time. There was a case involving the city manager who had been the city manager of alexandria, who then became the city manager of fort worth. Wayt happened, this is before that me too era. But i believe it was a Sexual Harassment type issue and discover nation case. And im pretty sure he won that case. After all. He would not have won it today. But he was a good city manager. You know. And he continued for many years in fort worth. His get to see again congressman. Jim moran great to see you and thank you. I had forgotten about that. Can i just interject on that at one point. Maybe think back and realize that back in the day when i had someone working with me in the bureau, i covered a lot of Supreme Court cases i covered Supreme Court cases sometimes like i cover bills in Congress Rate how does this affect buffalo . That is something i have really cut back on, being the only person here. I feel bad because i think it is, youre right it is very important. You have to cut somewhere. That is one place where i have felt like i have to do it. Tamar hallerman any other questions . Hi im at the saleh tribune. Two up with the salt lake tribune. Future . The online only . Is there positive future that can be found . Jerry . Tamara . Jerry zremski i dont think we know what the economic models going to be for local journalism. I think is going to depend on a lot of different factors in different areas. Frankly regional newspapers like mine are somewhat advantaged in that we have got enough people, we have professional sports teams. People subscribe, friendly, for our sports coverage. Smaller communities are the ones that are going to really suffer. Yet there are places like watertown, new york. We have mark heller who covered for the watertown paper. It really is a company town where there is a military base. And mark had a ton of stuff to do here. And there would still be a ton of for a watertown reporter to do. But there is not that person anymore because of the economics. The economics will shake itself out somehow. I think regional reporting will survive. It will probably continue to shrink some. It may just end up being a major market thing unfortunately. Tamar hallerman i do not know if i have an answer either. I find my own insecurities, for my own job security, im spinning my time hyper local i am spending my time hyper local. What is the thing the a. P. Or the wire will not have. Im going to do that unique story so i can prove to my bosses and corporate honchos that is still worth having some buddy here. Theres a lot of very local media that is not making a ton of money. A lot of it as that the neighborhood level. In seattle there was a capitol hill log. See inherent worth. That operates in a smaller geographic level than the local paper. Alsoel barthel and is nextdoor groups and facebook groups hey i saw this on my window what is going on. But he says on the Police Scanner this is happening. Again, none of it is making money. But the news is getting out there. It is a different standard. I saw a tweet today it said, todays the first of the month. Choose your online articles wisely. [laughter] you know what i mean. Because you get the 10 free ones. I chuckle. But at the same time, i believe i buy newspapers because i believe in it. But consumers are fickle. And it is fleeting. Other piece of information is going to come along five and its later. Ryan costello and the ability i think, the regional reporting network, to weave the national with a local in the way that only you can do, that is the sweet spot. We have national. People can find that information elsewhere. But that is the value proposition. The question is how do you sustain and create a moat around that Business Model so the consumer, this it is to get a consumer cannot get away with getting it for free over and over and over again. Tamar hallerman something that makes me nervous as millennial as i find a lot of my friends since trumps been elected, they subscribe to the post and the times for the first time, which is great. That is really good. I do not see the same enthusiasm for local news. It has not been ingrained in them. Maybe because their young and theyre finally settling down in one city. Ryan costello what until they are parents. Tamar hallerman exactly. I try to tell people please strive to the local paper two. We asked people if they paid for local news directly in the last year and only about 14 of adults had done so. We also asked the question how well do you think your local news is doing financially. About 70 said their local news is doing well financially. So that may not be an issue. Theres a story about a local issue a newspaper in michigan, the month before the closed printed a whole issue where the front page was blank. And they said this is what it will look like if you do not support the paper. I would guess we are going to wind up with two variants, and edify thet going to discussion anymore. Im trying to think of a positive things. But we need to be honest. One might be what was called the patch. It was very local, it was online. We had good reporters. They covered a lot of good stuff. Not a Business Model that was sustainable economically. But i think it might come back. Because it makes sense. Is just likeiant ryan was talking about, hedge funds or whatever sorts of capital comes in, they buy them up. They create a monopoly. And they do it across the country. And then they operate somewhat like sinclair. That is not a sinclair camera there is that . [laughter] you bought so many stations that. Ou have a core content of news case, there is a political bent. You have a core content of news, then you have maybe 20 of the papers local. See could claim that his local paper, but it is really just an iteration of the same stuff that everyre paper, in regional paper that they own. That is not a positive development. But it seems to be from an economic standpoint, that may be one of the only things that is going to be economically sustainable to do it that way. Tamar hallerman we have another question. Im a reporter was Science Magazine and used to be with the oakland tribune. Curious about why the digital only publications, you said seemed to thrive just on the coasts. Can you connect the dots on that . And what we might learn from that . Michael barthel yes. Im not quite sure. That is a good question. There a lot of cities on the coast that have very digital, digitally enabled folks. A lot of times the phrase is actually nonprofit online. It may be for a certain extent an issue of where the funding is going, and where the funders are interested. But local news is great to study because everyplace has its own story. Newsiladelphia, the local organization decides to become a nonprofit and try that Business Model. So that they are trying that as well. Im not quite sure about that answer. If other folks know that would i thinkt Jerry Zremski one factor may be the demographics of particular demographic areas a particular areas. Buffalo has an older demographic so our circulation has held up better. Older people in the readership. That is going to change over time. That is not a model for the future. But that might have something to do, to explain why the coastal areas you have a lot of people turning in and out turning in and out. Churning in thats different than the old rust belt cities. Tamar hallerman im going to try to give tommy what he wants which is always a good thing i think, and call on somebody in the room i know to be one of the very best regional reporters. Leslie clark. [applause] Tamar Hallerman oh thats nice. I worked with leslie at mcclatchy. She has covered washington for the miami herald, for the lexington Herald Leader and more. I wanted to ask leslie to talk about what she sees working and what gives her hope for the future. Thanks, julie. Ok. Is,t of what i see tamara mentioned it, at mcclatchy we are proud of having regional reporters and d. C. We have a number of regional reporters. I work for kentucky now and am covering mitch mcconnell. Which is a super beat. And a really and fortune to beat. And a really important beat rate and a number of my colleagues are here. To get Something Different that not everyone is going to do. So we know what the story is going the story of the day is going to be, that is not what were going to try to achieve. Were going to try to go and gives the people what they cannot get anywhere else. Of hope inees a lot regional reporting. They have a compass project they are doing, people may have heard about it with google, going into three news deserts that have they do not have any news operations in them i think the first is in youngstown ohio, which just lost its newspaper. And theyre going to try something new and be brave and go in there and try to get readers. Trying to get people reading them and talking to them. A lot of what we do is also knowing your community. I think that is a really important things like jerry knows buffalo. In miami really well when i reported from miami. Always for regional reporter in the front of my mind was what would land on the front page. Now that is like what will land on the homepage and stay there. So they will keep the sticky stories that people will go back to. So youre always thinking what to people in the Community Want to read . Now that cover for lexington, mitch mcconnell, the nice thing about him, is that it is not just he is not of interest just to folks in lexington, kentucky, he is of interest to a national audience. So i think we get a lot from that. How we would change that into subscription . Im not entirely sure on that. But i try to work well with oppotaco reporters there with the political reporters. And i focus on bourbon and horse racing and things the Community Cares about. I think if we try to be essential and write about things that, hopefully, people are interested in. Tamar hallerman i think we have time for one more. The am mark keller and was correspondent for watertown for 14 years and overlapped a bit with jerry here in the press building. I wanted to telik story and then maybe make an observation. Tell a quick when watertown hired me i had worked at the paper. I had been at the newsroom for three and a half years and they sent me down. And my editor said to me, mark, if we were looking for somebody who really knows washington, we could find somebody in d. C. To do that. But thats not what we were looking for. Were look for somebody who knows the north country, who knows people here, who knows and understands the publishers quirks and that sort of thing. That was the beauty of it. So i came down here as the regional i dont care about the race for speaker of the house. I do care whether the local congressman john mccue is going house osition at services. So thats what regional reporting is kind of all about. The observation i would make is that even though regional reporters, the ranks of us has just been decimated here, you go into the press gallon rees and the capital, and they are more full of reporters than at any time that i started here in december of 1997. And so l people the way that the capitol is being covered is different than what it used to be. And i dont know. These are great reporters. Theyre great at chasing stuff down. But the focus is different. I would be curious about any observations maybe from people up on the stage or elsewhere about how coverage of d. C. Has changed because of that. If i could i know we want to hear from everybody. But aisle take a crack at that. Theres no question but that the composition in the newsroom has changed. And a lot of them now are reporters as you said, energy and the environment. Infrom be ag or but the industry. The subject matter industry oriented newsletters. And theyre paid for by corporations who need to be on top of everything that is happening that could affect their bottom line. And that includes lobbyists. You know, theres nower think politico has one devoted with whats happening just in the lobbying business. That that works because the the consumers, although theres not a high quantity, thats a high quality in terms of capacity to pay. And they pay big money for energy newsletters. If this affects their investments theyre willing to write big checks to find out theyre at least as informed as their competitors. Thats very different from the kind of coverage you used to have with individual numbers and how well theyre serving their distribute. This is how well theyre serving the industry. What are they don thats going to affect your bottom line. I think its kind of a different paradigm for which theyre viewing the work of the congress. And coupled with and its a be ther question for the journalists but coupled with the palace intrigue, how do all us little mignons deal with whats happening at the white house . And how do we fit into that . And that drives fox and msn and all the others. Were the cog in the wheel for that broader nationalized narrative. Thats a lot of the reporters who chase you around. You can be good buddies with a lot of them because they need the quotes to fill up the article. But if thats not your thing, then you dont really have much reason as a member of congress to talk to the reporters in the press gallery except through regional, right . Youre better off having your comms direct tore get the press releases back tax and vacksing trying to hit the deadline for the next morning. Yeah, voted for h. R. 12 and heres my floor speech, you know . I find the palace intrigue stuff and feeling like the cog in the wheel a lot of the time unless any congressman is saying something upfront, so and so is a jerk. Heres what trump said and whos what our guys think of it. Going off of what leslie said having essential staff that no one else had. When i read about georgias water rights in front of the Supreme Court right now, those stories do really well because no one else is covering it. Theres a Silver Lining in that. You want to have the last word, jerry . Thanks. Im struck how this conversation comes full circle. Ive thought of what the congressman had to say about ear marks. When i came to washington 30 years ago, i wrote about ear marks all the time. The was as if buffalo judged its number of congress by ear marks. Now there are no ear marks. Whats interesting is that i look at the numbers that i cover today and while there are exceptions, there are some that are similar to the ones i covered 30 years ago. I covered a guy named tom reid which im sure you know pretty well which would be the serve the district type of congressman but without property rations. Hes take an different path. Hes worked with a bunch of different other centrist numbers to really energize this group called the Problem Solvers Caucus. I end up writing stories about the Problem Solvers Caucus because thats what hes doing. It goes into what youre saying about congress being nationalized. Its a perfect example of it. All right. Ill give you the final word. I want to encourage everyone to look at the upsnares the press box we have the front page. They were kicking and screaming in the National Beat last year. I will show them the front page of the waco newspaper that says the local ranch owner [laughter] referring to george w. Bush, which i love. I want to thank our panelists for taking the time to chat with us. I want to thank our crowd for coming out. Theyre a ton of current and former regional reporters including a bunch of former r. A. President s. For those who paid we have a reception upstairs and i would love to see you all. Thank you. And thank you, becky julie. [applause] thank you to the panelists. Thank you to andy color who has been running around with my phone and helped make this program happen. Thank you to the press club team that makes this experience so welcoming and comfortable. Thank you to cspan for being here recording this and airing it. And before people leave for reception, i do want to talk for a minute about somebody who is not here. You may notice some of us wearing pins that say free austin theiss. Hes the only american journalists being held abroad. Es been held in syria for 2,4 45 days. He was taken reporting for mcclatchy and the Washington Post. The u. S. Believes hes alive and is working very hard to bring him home. His family has been fighting for his freedom for seven months. We hope that you are too. Were starting a new campaign on austins birthday which is august 11th. And youll be able to learn askut austin doss. Org aboutaustin. Org. Thank you for supporting him. Thank you, again, for supporting programs like this. And thank you all for being here. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National able satellite corp. 2019] announcer cspans washington journal live with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up saturday morning well discuss the latest data breach and what protections are in lace for consumers, with edmir winsky with the research group. And a look at the Interest Rate cut with Washington Post economic correspondent heather long. And politico editor at large Peter Canelos on whether people are turning to historical sights to learn more about American History. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal Live Saturday at 7 00. Look for podcast week starting at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. On monday well talk to Larry Oconnell host of examining politics. Tuesday, rachel quester producer of the daily. On wednesday, mark leon goldberg. On thursday, chris stirewalt, stirewalt. No and and jennifer briny. Join the discussion. Watch our exclusive interview with President Donald Trump as he reflects on his first two and half years in office including raising of the debt ceiling. You take a look at the European Union thats doing poorly. You take a look at china thats doing poorly. Were the hottest country in the world. Were doing great economically and otherwise. We have a strong military, a lot stronger after this last budget. And then at some point very soon ill be able to cut back. But we had to rebuild our military. An interview with President Trump saturday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Watch any time online at cspan. Org. And listen wherever you are using the free cspan radio app. Saturday morning at 10 30 eastern on cspan, well show you first of two democratic president ial primary debates in detroit hosted by cnn. The second round of primary debays sad and sunday at 10 30 a. M. Eastern on cspan, cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. Betweenday, comparisons johnson. Nd not that he was a defender but that he did not understand the constitution. It was above his ability and that he was acting in unconstitutional ways. Sunday at 6 00 on american artifacts, a preview of the 19th amendment exhibit at the national archives. Women in new jersey who were americas first voters, beginning in 1776 when new jersey became a state, new jersey the new jersey state constitution made no mention of sex when discussing voting qualifications. It only had a property requirement. So women who own enough property primarily widows and single women so not all women in new jersey could and did vote in elections at the local, state and national level. Nonse and at 8 00 p. M. On the presidency, johnnifer rell talks about nixons early life and career. In early 1947 he campaigned if the marshall plan. He went to every rotary club every chamber of commerce, every v. F. W. And American Legion hall. Every crowd that would take him. He told them he owed them his best judgment not his obedience. And he convinced them. And when the primaries were held in california in december of 1948, Richard Nixon did not just win the republican nomination, he won the democratic nomination. He ran unopposed his first reelection company. Explore our nations past on American History tv every weekend on cspan 3. Announcer next, the South Carolina Republican Party silver elephant gala. Speakers include lindsey graham, Henry Mcmaster and mick mulvaney. This is just over an hour
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