Deadly boring institutional local news

I missed this last week, and maybe you did, too. Tim Porter dissects local reporting in local newspapers:

"Many newspapers produce hundreds if not more of column inches of local copy every week, but what is the subject matter of all this ink and pixels? In most regional and smaller newspapers, two-thirds to three-quarters of all local, non-sports stories are about institutions (government), crime (courts and cops) and reports (more institutions.) Count them in your own paper. And, as the papers get smaller, these stories become increasingly eye-glazing, devolving into either recitations of agendas or, worse, poorly executed attempts to mimic the more difficult forms of journalism (narrative, analysis, columns) practiced with excellence by only the best papers."

Comments

I realize Mr. Porter is bored with his local paper. I don't live in the Bay Area, so I don't know how good that newspaper is. To paint all newspapers with such a broad brush lumps Porter in with so many other pundits (wait, I just did the same thing to him and other deadwood critics!).

Yes, we must be hyperlocal and we must be compelling if we are going to maintain our local audience. No, not all city planning committee meetings are scintillating, but if we do not do at least the basic reporting of our cities (you can bet that no matter how real the Google Grid becomes, nobody else will cover those meetings with the same skill as a trained reporter), then we will further marginalize ourselves until we are truly the dinosaurs many profess us to be.