The dimensions of local news

Proximity

Editors have long known, from common sense as well as extensive feedback from readers, that news is newsier the closer it is to the reader. A car wreck or a routine election in the next city would be of little or no interest, but the same news story in a reader’s own town may be interesting.

Safety

Above all, people must feel safe in their own homes and neighborhoods, and local police and fire coverage has been a mainstay of newspaper news content. Evidence is mounting that our traditional coverage might be too intense and too superficial, overemphasizing crime, arrests, trials, fires and other symptoms, at the expense of more thoughtful, contextual coverage. Some critics are suggesting that newspapers cover personal safety as a public health issue.

Utility

Readership research suggests that utility, or usefulness, is one of newspapers’ two biggest assets or competitive advantages (the other being local news generally). The newspaper can give readers information to help them get through the day — holiday closings, movie listings, performance times and places, weather data, Internet websites, sale prices, deadline reminders, traffic reports and on and on.

Local Government

Editors do not need convincing that intense coverage of local government is at the heart of their mission. Certainly we accept the responsibility implied by the special place the free press is granted in the Constitution and our democratic processes. A more relevant issue here is how we can cover local government to make it most responsive to the public and to allow, even encourage, the most citizen involvement and participation.

Education

Local newspapers always have covered the schools, usually at the top and the bottom: the school board and the classroom feature. Our opportunity lies between, in serious and useful coverage of the real educational trends and issues that are affecting what children learn in the classroom.

Religion

Nine of 10 Americans say they believe in God or some other higher power, eight say they pray regularly, seven identify with organized religion, and four attend services in any given week. But traditionally, many journalists have been uncomfortable with coverage of spirituality. Thoughtful newspapers today are giving the coverage more respect

Support

Americans are participating not only in organized religion but also in a wide and rapidly growing variety of local support groups. A national study found that 40 percent of adults say they are involved in “a small group that meets regularly and provides caring and support for those who participate in it.” The groups may serve as a surrogate for traditional communities and lifelong relationships that have been largely sacrificed to American mobility. Newspapers hardly cover this phenomenon.

Identity

People want to be part of a community and to be identified with that community. People with a strong sense of community are more likely to be involved in local political and civic activities and to read newspapers. In turn, newspaper coverage contributes to sense of community.

Recognition

Every editor knows the importance readers, even infrequent readers, place on having their accomplishments reported in the newspaper. A TV mention is fleeting, but having one’s name printed positively in a newspaper and delivered to most of the homes in town is somehow an affirmation of honor. Everyone gets his or her name in the paper twice — when they are born and when they die — and any mentions in between are meaningful, positively or negatively. A scholar called it “democratizing prestige.” Editors call it refrigerator journalism.

Empowerment

One definition of community is collective action, people joining together to act on common concerns. The close relationship between community involvement and newspaper readership is mutual and utilitarian. That is, newspaper coverage can inspire people to become involved and then show them how to do it. Conversely, the public uses the newspaper to get information and make connections as an outlet for their need for civic involvement. This dimension has spawned civic or public journalism, in which some newspapers deliberately seek to encourage and facilitate citizen involvement.

Please see The Local News Handbook for much fuller discussions of these dimensions of local news.