Download issue (PDF) - Nieman Foundation - Harvard University

What’s Next for News?represent the entire universe of localnews online. Additional categoriesinclude mini sites, which tend to beidiosyncratic in the selection of storiesthey cover and not highly aggressive infinding revenue; local news systems,which are highly local, low-cost sitesthat are created with a regional ornational template, often by a corporation(AOL’s Patch, for example); andaggregators who curate and link toother sources.After the List: Next StepsAt RJI, we’re completing a telephonesurvey of the 100 online publishers onour list. The 60 online publishers whohave responded to date say producingoriginal news and engaging communityare their top priorities.Here is how a couple of onlinepublishers describe their mission:• We promote discussion and conversationof these topics as part of ourmission. As far as taking an activistrole, that’s not what we’re doing.We are looking to spur discussionas compared to promoting our sideof a particular issue.• We’re not advocates so we tend tofocus on the information side morethan what people are doing with theinformation. We do care what peopleare doing with the information, butour site is not designed to revolvearound it. We provide a forum forour readers either to post stories ormake comments on other stories. Itis kind of like a town square.Out of our research, we are findingsome common ground. Four areasworth mentioning are:• Nearly half of the sites rely on paidstaff, with students and internsas a secondary source of content.Volunteers or user uploads arewidely viewed as unreliable sourcesof content.• Online community publishers citecomments and social network integrationas the most effective waysto engage users.• Journalists are working with communitymembers to create newssites. No more bloggers vs. oldmedia. It’s all about partnershipsand networks.• Most are struggling with sustainabilityand developing revenuesources that include advertising,memberships, syndication, grantsand donations. Charging for accessis rarely seen as an option.We expect to post detailed surveyresults in late June. Find us atwww.rjionline.org. Michele McLellan, a 2002 NiemanFellow, was a 2009-2010 fellow atthe Reynolds Journalism Institute atthe Missouri School of Journalism.She writes the Leadership 3.0 blogfor the Knight Digital Media Center.Establishing a Digital Value for Watchdog Reporting‘Our impulse as digital journalists is to innovate—and this means finding storiesthat aren’t being covered by other news media in Baltimore and doing what wecan to illuminate them in ways that propel people to act.’BY STEPHEN JANISMy cell phone rang at roughly11 p.m.“Turn on the television,”said a man I’ll call Michael, an employeeof the Baltimore City Department ofPublic Works (DPW). “That’s Dennis!They arrested Dennis!”I didn’t know who Dennis was, butMichael doesn’t make late-night callsto pass along trivial information. Forseveral years he had alerted me to actsof malfeasance inside the city agencyresponsible for everything from fillingpotholes to managing the Baltimoreregion’s water supply.“That’s him,” he said. “He worksfor the department; that’s DennisMcLaughlin, man.”On the screen flashed a mug shotof a heavyset bald man, his roundedface punctuated by a droplet-sizedgoatee. Indeed, a Dennis McLaughlinhad been arrested for impersonatinga police officer. Using a phony badgeand a dashboard-mounted beacon, hehad pulled over two young women inBaltimore County, placed one underarrest, and then began fondling her.The victim managed to escape. Througha partial reading of his license plate,police tracked him down and chargedhim with a number of offenses, includingimpersonating a police officer, falseimprisonment, and assault.On the Richter scale of newsworthiness,impersonating a police officer ismildly catastrophic. But if McLaughlinwere a city employee, the story was severaldegrees more enticing, especiallyto my City Hall-centric audience. As Ichecked through the numerous newsstories about his arrest (and othermisdeeds), I found not a single mentionof his city job. My curiosity piqued,I decided to dig a little deeper into42 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010