Should Local Government Have to Pay to Get the Good News Published?

There’s probably not a newspaper journalist who has not been asked at some point in their career, “How come you write only about the bad things that happen and you don’t write about the good news?” In the past the usual answer was a polite knowing smile and a rambling that newspapers are writing so much about crime, sex, and political scandals because that’s what people really want to read even if they don’t like to admit it.

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And yet in today’s newspaper upheaval, with circulations in decline and publishers anxiously looking for ways to retrieve lost readers, it is a question that really needs to be reexamined. And the more local a newspaper sees its future, then the more it needs to take a look at exactly how it defines “news”.

Newark is the largest city in New Jersey. Its daily newspaper, the Star-Ledger serves much of the state with a circulation that remained steady in the last ABCs of around 400,000. It is doing something right because it actually gained 50 new readers in the last ABC reporting period when many metropolitan newspapers reported large losses.

But the city’s relationship with the Star-Ledger apparently is not all it could be with city officials unhappy because they believe a lot of their programs that their residents should know about are not being given proper exposure by the newspaper.

Enter into the arena the 25,000-circulation Newark Weekly News. In a city that he saw crying out for local coverage owner Howard Scott hit upon what he thought was a great idea – why give away news for free what you can paid to print it? If the city wants positive news, let them pay!

In a three-minute presentation to the city council Scott pitched, “ We have found oodles and oodles of positive news not identified by your paper of record (the Star-Ledger).” With very little discussion the council agreed a $100,000 contract for the newspaper to print the positive news as suggested by the city’s communications department.

In one edition last month the newspaper, besides the editorial copy promoting city activities, ran eight full-page ads publicizing city programs (such as buying back guns) and the city’s recreation program.

The Star-Ledger says, of course, that it does cover local Newark happenings. “We do have positive stories about Newark. The Newark This Week section is filled with stories about Newark and produces a weekly community news section about the city,” Rick Everett, managing editor, said in a statement appearing on his newspaper’s web site.

But in awarding the weekly the contract, Council President Donald Bradley said, “One of the hue and cries from residents is that they are not getting enough community news.” Councilman Hector Corchado complimented the weekly and said, “It’s a breath of fresh air. We don’t live in a Utopia. I wish (the media) would write about the good things.”

Although circulation is holding steady at the Star-Ledger, there is enough evidence from various surveys to suggest that the more local a newspaper becomes to its various zoned readers, the more chance it is has of maintaining that readership and retrieving lost readers. Is the council right that although the newspaper may print “local” or “positive” news, there is not enough of it?

They say when buying a property that the three most important points in deciding its value are location, location, and location. For regional and local newspapers today the three most important types of stories are local, local, and local.

And the more local the newspaper, the more positive that news needs to be. Residents want reinforcement they have chosen a good place to live, work, and bring up a family. Positive stories reinforce that belief and increase the readership.

The whole issue really boils down to that quote by the Star-Ledger’s managing editor. He may believe his newspaper is doing a fine job of local coverage. Is it?

The city believes it has many good stories that should get coverage, or have gotten more complete coverage than they received. Those stories include free flu shots, to the organization of street hockey leagues, to a successful program on how police are going back to a “local beat” system.

Journalistic purists argue, of course, that the weekly newspaper being paid to print such stories means there will never be a critical story in that newspaper against the city government. Absolutely true, but it begs the question that if the local media were doing its job then would the city have seen the need to pay for such coverage in the first place?

People want to know about all the programs and activities going on in their community. The web is full of sites concentrating on even one section of a major metropolitan area, providing the good, positive news about the community, and drawing enough readers to even get sponsorship.

Where this whole kind of news payment deal runs foul, and really smells, is when the weekly runs favorable columns about the lives and activities of the city council members. John V. Pavlak, chairman of the journalism department at Rutgers University, told the New York Times, the line was being blurred “between what is honest journalism and what is promotional material.

“You can never accept payment from sources because it puts you in their debt.” And he pointed out the obvious dilemma, “What happens if, in the process of reporting one of these press releases, you uncover something that is not good news?”

No argument with any of that, but in criticizing such deals the media needs to take a look at itself and ask why such deals are necessary in the first place? And if the case can really be made that the news and activities you and I should know about in our local community really is not reported to the degree it should be, then the real legitimate question is, how come?

When it comes to local news, newspapers should really reexamine what their community really wants from them.