When he surveyed local journalists four years ago, Damian Radcliffe found that despite tough times, they were “more upbeat about their future than perhaps might be expected.”
2016 feels like a long time ago right about now.
“I appreciate that everyone working in local journalism is slammed right now, so even asking people to take 10 minutes out of their day to complete a survey is a big ask,” said Radcliffe, the Carolyn S. Chambers Professor in Journalism and a professor at the University of Oregon. “But, given the challenges that local journalism is facing, it’s more important than ever to have an evidence base which can inform discussions about the future of the industry. The survey can act as a great data point to inform investment and ideas designed to safeguard the future of local journalism.”
You can find the new survey, which seeks respondents from newsrooms with a print circulation of 50,000 or fewer, here. We’ll check back in with Radcliffe once he’s collected insights and is ready to share them.
“I am really keen for the survey to be a platform for those local journalists whose voice and experiences seldom get heard at industry conferences, or in top-down industry reports. It’s these perspectives which need to be used to inform the future of local journalism and efforts to support it.”
Kristen Hare covers the business and people of local news for Poynter.org and is the editor of Locally. You can subscribe to her weekly newsletter here. Kristen can be reached at khare@poynter.org or on Twitter at @kristenhare.
