Pay your journalists

As a Minneapolis native I love all things 612.  This includes, at the top of my list, the Star Tribune.

I now live in New Orleans, where it has just been announced the daily Times-Picayune will have major staff cuts and be reduced to three publications a week.  As a recent graduate with a BA in Journalism what is happening in New Orleans worries me.  It is well known that the role of printed newspapers is changing, but the role of news cannot.  The Times-Picayune is likely cutting one-third of their newsroom staff, 50 of 150 reporters and editors.  Though the news may move online and out of print that does reduce the need for reporters in a city, let alone one rampant with corruption.  Citizens still need a strong and invested independent news-gathering force to enforce the checks and balances of our democracy, something most residents do not have the time to do.

I was living in West Virginia the summer the 35W bridge collapsed.  Obviously on a much different scale, but not completely unlike New Orleanians misplaced in the wake of Katrina, I relied on my hometown paper to bring me news and updates on the unfolding situation.  When the phones weren't working, I sat in front of a computer and refreshed startribune.com like there was no tomorrow, until I got through to family and friends.  And, if not most importantly, the investigative pieces produced after the tragedy provided important information and a personalized account for Minnesotans.  And if you're wondering about Katrina, well, those stories are still being published seven years later.

Did you wonder what caused the bridge collapse? The Star Tribune reported investigative findings to you.
Did you wonder about the other bridges in the state? The Star Tribune published that data, not national media conglomerates.
Did you wonder who was on the bridge? The Star Tribune compiled and published a car by car account of the disaster, and personalized the tragedy.

I am asking you to support your local paper.  Wherever you are.

I subscribe to the electronic version of the Star Tribune, because when I move back to Minnesota I want the media to be as strong as ever.  I know that media is the fourth branch of government and would not feel comfortable living in a world without it.

The Times-Picayune did not have an electronic subscription option on their affiliated nola.com site. I believe this would have been a much better 'next step', allowing online readers to help contribute and keep a full news team afloat.  Rather than reducing print to three days/week in a city with only 51 percent of the population subscribing to broadband, below the national average of between 60 and 80 percent according to a story by The Lens.

I would have been happy to pay an e-subscription to the T-P, assuming their online outlet was as news focused as their print edition.

I invite you to visit Advance Internet's online news sites: www.nola.com, www.al.com, or www.mlive.com.  See how the top stories are the most read and/or commented on, not necessarily the most news-worthy, which an editor would decide.

When a convict escaped from an Orleans Parish Prison work assignment recently and was running around City Park this was rightfully the headline on nola.com.  When the convict was caught that afternoon, this 'update' did not surpass the original story on the nola.com newsfeed because the original 'escapee' story had more views and comments.  Wouldn't you want to know he had been caught?

When I hit startribune.com just now I could see 12 news headlines, and moving to nola.com I saw two that were immediately pushed off screen by advertisements.  Invest in the Star Tribune, or your local paper, so they can maintain their own web site and continue delivering news.

Pay your journalists to report to you, investigate for you, protect you, and hold your city, state, and national government accountable.  If they aren't doing it, who will?