With ‘Radically Rural,’ working together for better ideas
The radical downsizing of the New York Daily News or the closure of the Village Voice may get national attention, but much of the real shrinkage, consolidations and closures have come at the mid- and small-town level, with less and less coverage farther from urban areas.
Terrence Williams, president and COO of one New Hampshire paper, the Keene Sentinel, has organized a conference called “Radically Rural,” bringing together journalists from small dailies and weeklies with one goal: keeping journalism alive in their communities.
“Our approach — not completely successful yet — has been to augment our print and digital work with a number of free publications and events, most of which have gained some traction,” Williams says in an interview.
Here’s more from my back and forth with Williams on the conference Sept. 27-28 in New Hampshire:
Q. What prompted the idea of a get-together?
We came up with this idea — Radically Rural — following the staging of two highly successful networking events, one in 2016 and another last year. We partnered with the Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship, a local business incubator, and focused on innovation in rural communities the first year and then on the success of Main Streets in the age of Amazon in year two.
Those events led us to thinking early this year about a summit during which we could run tracks to further pursue discussions on Main Streets and innovation, but also explore more deeply other issues such as community news, working lands and arts and culture.
This region has a small city, Keene — population about 25,000 — but it's known for its land and farm conservancy, a strong community interest in news and a vibrant arts culture. So we added those three topics to the summit concept.
Q. Have there been recent newsroom closings in New Hampshire?
We have not seen recent newspaper closings in New Hampshire, but most papers have suffered newsroom cuts, and there has been some consolidation. New Hampshire is home to a couple of free dailies, which are successful, some weekly and monthly startups and a couple of online-only ventures. There's a fair amount of innovation going on here.
Q. What discussion are you looking forward to the most?
Regarding the journalism track, I'm particularly interested in the thoughts expressed in and around sustaining small-town news organizations. That said, both of the sessions on the first day of the summit work well together, with the first exploring how misinformation can be a local issue and that trust in news organizations, such as ours, starts at the local level.
Q. What models do you find fascinating to keep local news alive, other than a billionaire buying the operation?
I'm not sure there is one solution for sustaining newspapers; certainly smarter people than I have been debating this. The standard model doesn't work, but there are many ways to build around it so that newsrooms at least maintain staffing.
Our approach — not completely successful yet — has been to augment our print and digital work with a number of free publications and events, most of which have gained some traction.
This continues to be a time of great experimentation. We hope, for small community newspapers, this summit will grow to be an incubator for new ideas that include innovative revenue strategies helped by enhanced trust in what we do and what we are.
Quick hits
SENTENCED: Two Reuters journalists to seven years in prison for reporting on a massacre in Myanmar’s “ethnic cleansing” of a minority group, which has prompted 700,000 people to flee. The U.N. human rights chief called for the journalists’ unconditional release, as did the U.S. Embassy. While being led away in handcuffs, reporter Wa Lone said: “I have no fear. I have not done anything wrong … I believe in justice, democracy and freedom.”
DUMPED: Steve Bannon from the New Yorker Festival, following an outcry. “I changed my mind,” New Yorker editor David Remnick told his staff on Monday. Guests such as Jimmy Fallon and Jim Carrey said they weren’t going to attend the fest after the invitation went out to the race-baiting former Trump adviser and former head of Breitbart.
FIGHT BACK: That's what Chuck Todd suggests in this essay in The Atlantic. "There’s a new kind of campaign underway, one that most of my colleagues and I have never publicly reported on, never fully analyzed, and never fully acknowledged: the campaign to destroy the legitimacy of the American news media," Todd writes. "The American press corps finds itself on the ropes because it allowed a nearly 50-year campaign of attacks inspired by the chair of Fox News to go unanswered." Todd says the press should be more aggressive, not necessarily activist. "The idea that our work will speak for itself is hopelessly naive."
AT REST: The widow of a reporter slain in the Capital Gazette mass shooting spread his ashes at Washington’s ballpark. John McNamara, who had waited 34 years for major league baseball to return to the nation’s capital, had made the offhand suggestion to his wife years earlier, Jeff Barker of The Baltimore Sun reports.
OVERRULED: Jack Dorsey overruled his staff on kicking Infowars’ Alex Jones off the platform, and ordered the reinstatement of neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, The Wall Street Journal reported. Jones was bounced, but only for a week. (Here’s The Hill report, which is not behind a paywall.)
MOVING: The PBS public editor, Madhulika Sikka, will become executive producer of a new flagship podcast for The Washington Post. Sikka formerly was executive producer of NPR's "Morning Edition" and a senior "Nightline" producer. (h/t Brian Stelter)
TWO HATS: He’s COO of a cannabis company. He’s also running a New York public broadcasting station. Is that cool? Dru Sefton of Current reports.
ADVICE TO THE GERMAN PRESS: In an open letter after a summer research project, Jay Rosen notes five pillars of German media, including defending liberal democracy and all human beings, including minority groups. He says that sometimes that conflicts with sense of maintaining distance, perspective, objectivity. (h/t Rick Edmonds)
NOT SO FAST: Are you skim-reading this? Take a few minutes to understand how that may be hurting you. By Maryanne Wolf.
On Poynter.org
-
The Italian fact-checker getting death threats for debunking hoaxes. By Daniel Funke.
-
Covering children of color living in poverty. By Mel Grau.
Want to get this briefing in your inbox every weekday morning? Sign up here.
Got a tip, a link, a suggestion? We’re trying to make this roundup better every day. Please email me at dbeard@poynter.org or reach me @dabeard.
Welcome back, and have a great Tuesday.
