[Editor: The report below, “Losing the News,” is a really important work for our times. My home town of Benicia, California, population around 28,000, has suffered cutbacks in all of our local news providers. Our Benicia Herald is limping along with very little staff, prints on only 3 days per week. Our next door neighbor, Vallejo, California, population around 122,000, was unable to sustain a Benicia reporter several years ago, and rarely covers news in Benicia. The Contra Costa Times / East Bay Times quit covering Benicia and other small Bay Area communities long ago. “News Deserts” are appearing all across the country. “Losing the News” is a formidable analysis of the phenomenon, including important “big picture solutions” and recommendations. The report is copyrighted and can’t be reproduced here. Check out the contents below and click to read the report at https://pen.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Losing-the-News-The-Decimation-of-Local-Journalism-and-the-Search-for-Solutions-Report.pdf – R.S.]
LOSING THE NEWS
The Decimation of Local Journalism and the Search for Solutions
LETTER 4
INTRODUCTION 5
WHAT IS A LOCAL NEWS ECOSYSTEM? 7
WHY LOCAL NEWS MATTERS 8
CASE STUDY: VIEW FROM SOUTHEASTERN N. CAROLINA 18
THE DECIMATION OF LOCAL NEWS 24
SYSTEMIC INEQUITY IN U.S. NEWS MEDIA 33
CASE STUDY: VIEW FROM DETROIT 37
INDUSTRY ADAPTATION AND INNOVATION 43
CASE STUDY: VIEW FROM DENVER 49
BIG PICTURE SOLUTIONS 56
RECOMMENDATIONS 76
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 80
ENDNOTES 81
[BenIndy Editor – Question: will Gibson Publishing ALSO shut down the struggling Benicia Herald? No word on this as yet. Will keep you posted… More on the story in area news outlets here. – R.S.]
The current editor of the 161-year-old newspaper said he isn’t sure whether the paper will continue as an online-only endeavor.
Martinez News-Gazette, 802 Alhambra Ave., Martinez (Google Maps Street View)MARTINEZ, CA — The Martinez News-Gazette, which proudly boasts it has been published continuously since September 1858, told its readers Sunday morning that it will cease publishing, at least in print, with its Dec. 29 edition.The news came in a front-page story Sunday, which also was published on the newspaper’s website and its Facebook page.Rick Jones, the Gazette’s editor the past six years, said on Sunday that he isn’t sure whether the paper will continue as an online-only endeavor. The Gazette has been sustained largely by paid legal advertising, which Jones said would not carry over to online.”We do have a decent online presence and an active Facebook page,” Jones said. He said it’s hard to find longtime Martinez residents who haven’t either been loyal Gazette readers, or worked as delivery carriers for the paper, which is published twice a week.”This paper means a lot to the community,” Jones said.The Gazette’s closure announcement caused a stir on a local Facebook page called Martinez Rants and Raves. Among many members there, Sunday’s announcement came as a shock.”I am sad to hear the Martinez Gazette will not be there for our city to share local events and for parents to clip out articles and pictures about their kids activities and sports,” Martinez resident Bob DiBetta posted there. “Growing up I remember, I felt proud when my family clipped the article about our second-grade class making puppets for a local show.”The Gazette’s announcement comes after the regional East Bay Times has cut back on coverage in Martinez and other nearby cities, and after at least two upstart local print newspapers have come and gone.The Gazette is owned by Vallejo-based Gibson Radio and Publishing, which also owns newspapers in Benicia and Dixon. Jones said the Gazette has somewhere between 4,000 and 4,500 subscribers. There are only two full-time employees — Jones is one of them — and three part-timers.
Jones said he knows he has local support; “Every person has asked me, ‘What can we do to save it?’
“I’m really trying to get over the emotional part of it and trying to be more pragmatic about it,” he said.
Repost from The Vallejo Times-Herald [Editor: Thanks to the Vallejo Times-Herald for it’s front-page photo of yesterday’s local protest against the ouster of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Trump administration cannot be allowed to work this outrageous obstruction of justice! Coverage of the MASSIVE nationwide protests was buried this morning by news of the California wildfires and mass murders in Thousand Oaks. NOTHING in the SF Chronicle, but here’s the East Bay Times coverage. (See also Google’s full coverage.) And, oh by the way – that’s Benicia’s own Lee Wilder Snider, Susan Street and Donna Shehan front and center in the photo! And I’m sure that’s Craig Snider behind Susan’s right arm. See also “Oh, please – not again…” – R.S.]
Rapid Response
By Chris Riley, November 8, 2018 at 5:55 pm
Dozens of Vallejoans took to the street in front of the ferry building to take part in ‘Nobody is above the law-Mueller protection rapid response’ a nation-wide peaceful protest on Thursday in Vallejo. (Chris Riley–Times-Herald)
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