Topic: Local News

Global Issues Viewed Through Local Eyes
New media—and new ‘newsroom’ arrangements—combine to make local coverage of environmental issues compelling and personal.
By Perry Beeman

Going Far to Explore a Local Story
‘The currency common to these assignments was the thread of local connections stretching from Indiana to overseas and back in news stories we broadcast.’
By Kevin Finch

Blending Voice and Reporting
‘… stories conveyed a definite point of view, and the voice we used shared our perspective throughout their telling.’
By John Doherty and Tim Logan

Changing Reporters’ Beats—With a Focus on Local
‘… we need to demonstrate in our pages and on our Web site that local journalism does not mean insular, shallow content.’
By Rene Sanchez

Investigative Talent Departs After Awards Come In
The Blade’s commitment to investigative reporting endures despite the loss of key reporters to larger news organizations with better pay.
By Dave Murray

Investing in Watchdog Reporting
‘… the Journal Sentinel has built a 10-person Watchdog Team with a robust Web presence called Watchdog Online.’
By Mark Katches

Making Firm a Newspaper’s Focus on Investigative Reporting
‘In an age when our critics love to crow that news is an undifferentiated commodity available anywhere, investigative reporting clearly isn’t.’
By David Boardman

Investigative Reporting: Keeping It Relevant, Keeping It Local
‘Our story selection is attuned to answering the question a reader might ask: How does this affect me?’
By Paul D’Ambrosio

Advice About Doing Project and Daily Reporting at the Same Time
By Dan England

Public Investigator: Transforming Tips Into Stories
Two reporters use quick-hit, watchdog journalism to investigate local issues—and blog about what they do.
By Raquel Rutledge and Ellen Gabler

Citizens Media: Has It Reached a Tipping Point?
New media initiatives emerge when citizens feel ‘shortchanged, bereft or angered by their available media choices.’
By Jan Schaffer

The Challenge of Community Building
Knight Foundation asks whether the community role newspapers play can be replicated by new media and offers to support those who show it can.
By Gary Kebbel

Serendipity, Echo Chambers, and the Front Page
As readers on the Web, we may filter out ‘perspectives that might challenge our assumptions and preconceptions about what’s important and newsworthy.’
By Ethan Zuckerman

From Idea, to Beat Reporting, to Investigative Project
At the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the I-team created a new strategy to make certain that watchdog journalism is featured in the newspaper.
By Lois Norder

Team Reporting on a Watchdog Project
Tensions surfaced as an investigative team produced a six-part series amid pressures of a downsized newsroom.
By Darren Barbee

Remembering the Value of Investigative Journalism
A newspaper editor describes six newsroom strategies that ensure that watchdog reporting thrives—even at news organizations where resources are limited.
By Rex Smith

Needed: A Leader to Champion the Cause
In restructuring The Post and Courier’s newsroom, the top editor strengthened the focus on investigative journalism in the newspaper and on the Web.
By Doug Pardue

Joining Forces to Produce Public Service Journalism
‘By using a model like this one, we can more effectively use our staff to do investigative journalism that holds government institutions accountable.’
By David Ledford

Live Web Cast—From a Newspaper’s Newsroom
‘We did not want to produce an imitation of local TV news. We wanted to create something far less polished—more like a video blog, short and raw and conversational.’
By John Hassell

Forgetting Why Reporters Choose the Work They Do
Will journalists ‘cover local news for life, with no chance of parole?’
By Will Bunch

Cutting Staff Results in Less Local Coverage
By Bill Ostendorf

Investigative Reporting Stays Local
‘The local stories are the toughest. They matter more to readers ….’
By Ken Armstrong

Investigative Reporting: Strategies for Its Survival
New funding mechanisms and newsroom changes are needed if watchdog journalism is to thrive in small and midmarket news organizations.
By Edward Wasserman

The Benefits of Computer-Assisted Reporting
‘… in this day of easily accessible data, computer expertise can be a great equalizer.’
By Jason Method

Nurturing Newsroom Talent With Local Investigations
‘For projects, the newspaper now typically links a lead investigative reporter with beat reporters.’
By Michael Sallah

Finding Support for a Lengthy Mission
To do this investigative story, ‘we needed the total investment of our editors, our newspaper’s publisher and, in turn, Hearst Corporation executives.’
By Brendan Lyons

Changing Circumstances Delay An Investigation—and Lead to a New Approach
With The Blade’s I-team no longer functioning, the paper’s only investigative reporter now partners with beat reporters to do watchdog stories.
By Steve Eder

Employing Different Strategies With Two Projects
‘… investigative reporting can be just as effective at revealing why something did happen as it can be in documenting how something could happen.’
By Ron Menchaca

Connecting Congressional Earmarks With Campaign Contributions
An investigative reporter creates a database of earmarks revealing the relationship between wasteful spending and political favors.
By David Heath

Risk-Adverse Newspapers Won't Cross the Digital Divide
‘Newspapers lacked the external vision necessary to see the vast range of opportunities created by the Internet.’
By Chris Cobler

A Local Newspaper Endures a Stormy Backlash
‘We had the opportunity to tell the story of powerless people who'd been hurt by powerful people who counted on the public never learning what they'd done.’
By Dean Miller

Winning By Just Losing Less Badly; Edwards Visits Lima to Nibble at GOP
By Stephen Koff

Senate Hopefuls Clash Over Minimum Wage
By Schuyler Kropf

Exploring Connections and Tensions
The small local newspaper in Greeley, Colorado devoted considerable time and space to examining the gaps emerging in its community.
By Dan England

When Fierce Competitors Join the Same Team
North Carolina’s leading newspapers now publish each other’s investigative work ‘as prominently as we would have had we reported them ourselves.’
By Gary Schwab

A Retired Newspaper Journalist Takes What He Knows to the Web
‘What “sold” RappVoice to the local audience was solid and timely reporting, analysis, and in-depth explanation of complex subjects ….’
By James P. Gannon

Looking Behind the Scenes of Political Coverage
A study compares national presidential press coverage with local reporting on congressional races and emerges with some unexpected findings.
By Shanto Iyengar, William F. Woo & Jennifer McGrady

Filling a Local Void: J-School Students Tackle Watchdog Reporting
‘Those of us who have been investigative reporters have a responsibility to ensure that local watchdogging remains robust in our industry.’
By Maggie Mulvihill and Joe Bergantino

An Antidote for Web Overload
With a hunger for explanatory guidance amid the raging storm of Web news flashes, a journalist stresses context to attract digital users.
By Matt Thompson