Here come da judge

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Every year, I take on a little journalism chore: judging other states’ press association awards. It usually just takes one weekend day, or two at most, but I really get more than I give. That’s how I spent my Sunday.

For me, it’s an opportunity to put my hands on what distant local newspapers consider good journalism. I always sign up for the weeklies, as they’re sort of my niche. They’re often not my cup of tea, however. For example, some of those little newspapers are actually community public relations sheets, papers whose owners believe booster stories are good journalism and will enhance advertising revenues. Some, like some tribal papers, have no pretension to be anything but family newsletters.

But it becomes obvious, and I mean like a sore thumb, that the newspapers that are doing real, balanced, watchdog journalism are vastly more successful from both a community service and a financial standpoint. I mean, they’re thick with ads and content, and the staff boxes are big and dense.

But—particularly this year when I’m reading newspapers from a Midwest state—these are daily newspapers that come out once a week. They don’t have the edge of alt-weeklies. They have far more in common with the Reno Gazette-Journal than with us. Many of these publications serve a much smaller readership than our own metropolitan daily, and yet, they have triple and quadruple the percentage of locally produced articles that would appear in any single issue of the Gazette-Journal. In fact, it’s very difficult to find a wire story, and many of them actually rewrite the press releases that are published as “staff reports.”

I watch our community newspaper struggle, and I listen intently to the silence when more buyouts are announced by Gannett. My heart goes out to those experienced journalists, and I know they aren’t the insulated ones who can’t see what works in other parts of the country. I don’t know why corporate can’t see this, too.