OK, I've been debating whether to write this or not, but it needs to be said.
As I reported earlier, I attended the ad hoc landfill advisory committee meeting on Thurs. evening. I was the only reporter there.
On Tuesday, I attended the Budget & Finance/Public Utilities joint committee meeting at which the proposed mods to the wastewater treatment facility were discussed. I was the only reporter there.
You can argue (I guess) that the landfill is a very localized issue, but believe me, it could (and probably will) blow up.
But $26 mil for mods to the wastewater treatment facility and no one from the Daily News shows up? Hello?
Some people were very surprised that I was the only reporter there and said so (and I'm hoping from now on, they'll give me the tips instead of the Daily News).
Not only that, but when I started on Globe North, I was told that the landfill was some editor's "pet project." Where was someone from the Globe at that landfill meeting?
No ... they rely on someone else being there and then reporting on it later, reporting based on a story another reporter broke.
Sometimes you have to do that ... you can't be everywhere, especially if you've only got one reporter on the beat - but the daily (the "paper of record") is a whole organization, with multiple reporters covering this city.
And, I might add, there were few people from the public at the WWTF meeting and no one from the public at the landfill meeting.
It frustrates the hell out of me.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
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2 comments:
Newspapers are cutting costs. Since they are now run by lawyers and/or beancounters (as opposed to newspaper folk), they cut the expensive salaries; i.e., the good reporters. That leaves only the junior people, with only enough resources to retype press releases.
If there's a conflict, they might take the time to cut and paste the conflicting releases into a "he said, she said" story.
If you don't send press releases, your interests aren't going to be covered at all.
The sad part of that, Dick, is that I remember a certain young editor of mine spending inordinate amts. of time going through press releases to see if they were worthy of being put in the paper.
She had to be persuaded on the merits of news that did not arrive in the form of a press release.
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