In Vermont, one hyperlocal newsroom aims to fill a void
Record
ceased publication at the end of March, Waterbury, Vermont, was on its way to becoming another news desert. At the time, Lisa Scagliotti a longtime Waterbury resident who used to work as managing editor of two of the
Record’s sister weeklies was running a journalism internship program at the University of Vermont: training students, offering editing and feedback, and helping aspiring journalists place work in local publications. When covid-19 interrupted daily life, students’ schedules were upended, and Scagliotti’s local paper shut down. So she and her students seized the moment and launched their own publication: the
“If voters aren’t listening, then what are we doing here?” A Q&A with Pat Rynard
On January 4, political news site
Iowa Starting Line announced it was going on hiatus until further notice. “Good journalism should hold the powerful accountable, but it should do so in reality, not just theory,” Pat Rynard, founder and managing editor, wrote. “And if voters aren’t listening to it, then what are we doing here?”
Rynard launched
Iowa Starting Line in 2015 as a left-leaning news blog for political insiders “a way to bring some balance to the online political conversation in Iowa,” he says. Over the years, the publication evolved into a full-fledged news outlet with a large staff. One year ago, in the lead-up to a chaotic primary election, the
If voters aren t listening, then what are we doing here? : a Q&A with Pat Rynard cjr.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cjr.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
New report outlines COVID-era proposals to save journalism
“Saving Journalism: A Vision for the Post-covid World”
Dozens of plans to help save journalism have emerged since the covid-19 pandemic decimated media outlets globally. Many of these initiatives involve increased support from foundations and discussion about how media business models can adapt to the current crisis. But desperate times require flexibility and innovation, and we are seeing a surprising number of proposals that break from past practices. Most promising are Australia’s efforts to get Google and Facebook to pay for news and legislative proposals in the US to pass laws and get investment that would support local news.
With the loss of journalism outlets, homogeneity becomes the norm
On October 20, Minneapolis alt-weekly
City Pages reported that the Minneapolis police deputy chief had been demoted for saying that the force’s hiring tactics, left unchanged, would yield “the same old white boys.” Soon after, they reported that the ACLU was suing the city of Minneapolis for evicting unhoused people from local parks. The next week, the publication went dark, another victim of a pandemic year.
City Pages wasn’t alone. In February, the
Waterbury Record reported on a municipal measure that would increase taxes in the Vermont town by fifty percent. In March,