The future of journalism

Tim Waters, a Longmont city councilman, hosts a podcast called "The Backstory." On Oct. 9, Waters took his show on the road to the auditorium at the Longmont Museum, where a crowd of 50, including Niwot historian and former Courier columnist Anne Dyni, attended in person, in addition to an online audience.

The topic was the future of journalism in the age of social media, and Waters assembled an impressive panel of journalists, including Dana Coffield, co-founder of the Colorado Sun, Melissa Davis, a former journalist and a vice-president of the Gates Family Foundation, Chuck Plunkett, former editorial page editor of the Denver Post, and Maria Karagianis, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the Boston Globe and currently a reporter for the Left Hand Valley Courier.

Waters began by saying, "I think it's one of the most critical stories – the question is, 'How did we get where we are?'"

Davis noted that local news is disappearing, with one in five newspapers closing in the last few years, and the number of journalists cut by 50%. "The amount of local news has declined by half," she said, "and 70% to 80% of ads have gone online. Advertising subsidized local news." But she concluded, "There is hope."

Coffield cited the Colorado Media Project, saying, "People do still care." Plunkett, who now teaches journalism classes at the University of Colorado Boulder, after calling on the owners of the Post to sell the paper in 2018, was also optimistic. "We have a lot of students who are very energetic."

Karagianis said, "I've seen a few changes. I was a journalist when news was real." She recounted her experience as a young reporter when she was sent to South Africa to cover the end of apartheid, where she could have been arrested for riding on a Black bus. She told how everything she wrote had to be reviewed and approved by the secret police. The local newspaper where she had her office was later forced to close, but before they did so, the editor would print an article with a large white space on the page, sending an unwritten message to readers that, "There is much more you should know, but we can't tell you."

In Boston she was part of a team of 30 journalists who covered forced bussing when a federal judge ruled that they had to integrate public schools. "We had the worst riots in Boston, the 'cradle of democracy,'" she recounted. "For three years it was like covering a war zone. They started shooting into our building, they pulled drivers out of delivery trucks and attacked them."

Waters then asked the panel, "How close are we to 'news deserts' where there is no local newspaper?" Davis responded, "There are definitely news deserts in Colorado." Coffield said, "People call us [at the Colorado Sun, a Denver-based newspaper] from southeast Colorado when police are doing bad stuff to people."

The panel agreed that holding public leaders accountable is one of the most important things journalists do, and Waters, as an elected official, concurred, saying, "There are times when I wish we had more attention." Karagianis said, "We really did believe that our job was to speak truth to power."

Plunkett described the rebellion at the Denver Post when a hedge fund he described as "vulture capitalists" took ownership and gutted the newsroom, cutting the number of reporters from 300 to 70 in a few years. He noted that the number of open records requests has now dropped considerably, and he overheard a politician say, "Good, now we don't have to worry about scrutiny."

How important is local news? In Plunkett's opinion, "The reason that we have democracy is that we have local news."

Davis responded, "It's so important that people who aren't journalists care about this issue." She said, "Maybe journalism should become a 501(c)(3) [non-profit charitable organization]."

In discussing why it's important to have journalists, as opposed to simply relying on anyone who has a cell phone and access to social media, Karagianis spoke of her experience in Boston with the bussing issue, saying, "I had to learn to interview people who I violently disagreed with. You can't fight back. You have to learn how to listen."

Plunkett closed the discussion, saying, "Just be transparent. Democracy is a great idea." He has hope for the future. "Students are willing to put up with it for less money," he said. "We've managed to get through it before."

Panelist Maria Karagianis told how her newspaper in South Africa was censored by the secret police during the end of Apartheid, and the newspaper responded by printing white space to signal to readers, "There are things you should know, but we can't tell you about them."

The second part of the two-part series entitled "Media Matters: The Backstory on Journalism, News & Accountability – The Local Scene," is scheduled for Oct. 30 at 3 p.m. at the Longmont Museum. The panel includes Macie May of the Longmont Leader, Sergio Angeles of Longmont Public Media, former reporter Silvia Solis, John Vehrenkamp of the Longmont Daily Times-Call, and Biff Warren of the Left Hand Valley Courier.