The importance of “in-house” beat reporting

At this point, it’s no use rehashing the state of the news business or the state of journalism (two very different things). That’s been done to death by Alan Mutter, Ken Doctor, Jay Rosen, Jeff Jarvis and countless others. So let’s just stipulate that the news business as we’ve known it is comprehensively melting down, and that some new version is going to rise up to replace it. Someday I’ll jump into the conversation about what that new thing might look like, but for now I want to talk about one specific thing only.

One of the holes opening up in the news business is bread-and-butter local news reporting. Local newsgathering is pretty expensive, but until recently it was paid for by the local media monopoly on advertising (before the internet, where could car dealers and local retailers reach buyers? Before craigslist, where could you sell your junk?). Without that monopoly, the relatively big news staffs at mid-tier dailies and local TV affiliates start to look pretty fat, so the bosses have been trimming newsrooms to the bone.

So the casualty is the kind of “who, what and when” news that helps local communities stay informed about their neighborhood, town or city. You know, about a brownfield site cleanup in the South Bronx, or your neighbor in Tonawonda busted for tax fraud, or even just a guy down the street getting a promotion in the National Guard. Who’s going to write and report on this news?

You should. Organizations have to take responsibility for getting the word out to their audiences, especially local ones. You’ve got to be your own newsmaker–your own beat reporter. And you’ve got to publish that news so people can find it.

The good news is, most organizations already do this by sending out news releases, event announcements and other newsy tidbits all of the time. They’re already covering their own news. And the dirty little secret of the newspaper business is how much of this organizationally produced content they use already. Now that the news business doesn’t have the cash flow to pay a $50,000-a-year reporter to rewrite a vanilla news release, why not just print the release and add some quick context?

I think this is a huge opportunity for local organizations and the media (old and new) that cover them. Let’s dispense with the fiction that back in the good ol’ days reporters and editors ferreted out every interesting news item on their own and recognize the critical role local businesses, state and local government, non-profits, and even political and advocacy groups play in the news ecosystem. Let’s stop acting like publishing a press release–especially a really juicy piece of news–compromises journalism and instead treat it as another piece of relevant local content in the new news business.