There has been a growing fear that Capital-J Journalism, A.K.A. "Public Interest Journalism", is endangered by declining mainstream media budgets and ignorant media executives chasing higher stock prices. "Unless we find enlightened corporate ownership/government subsidy/foundation support," the fearful ones say, "our local news will plunge into darkness and soon be all AP stories and soulless breaking news updates."
This is empty thinking unworthy of a trade supposedly grounded in clear-eyed analysis.
In response to the hue and cry, Chicago has become the crèche of multiple Capital-J Journalism rescue operations, each heralding Public Interest Journalism as their raison d'etre. They include the money-hemorrhaging purchase and operation of the Sun Times Media Group by Jim Tyree and associates, the MacArthur Foundation-subsidized Chicago News Cooperative and the enlightened capitalist for-profit venture of Geoff Dougherty, ChicagoCurrent.com.
While Capital-J Journalism projects have been attracting bon mots, outside the limelight Chicago has seen some true news innovation. The renaissance has been led by projects like Everyblock, Gapersblock, The WindyCitizen, Chicagoist, The Beachwood Reporter, District 299, 600 Words, The Expired Meter, CTA Tattler and Lake Effect News. All of these efforts have ignored journalism's "tradition" baggage and has instead provided new meanings to "news".
Maybe you've heard of Everyblock because of its recent sale to MSNBC. But each of these projects have three things in common: They are online-based, they target a specific demographic or psychographic and they serve a specific need or interest that is otherwise unserved by traditional news media.
When Chicagoist was founded six years ago I stumbled into its then-editor, Rachelle Bowden, and became the site's politics writer. During the two years I wrote for Chicagoist, our writing lacked content consistency and freewheeled like mad, despite Rachelle's attempts to focus us. But we had a snarky, ironic voice and managed to write about events and report news the Chicago Tribune and Sun Times missed. Our daily readership grew from dozens to thousands in two years and now the site averages about ten thousand daily readers - and is profitable.
Is Chicagoist journalism? For the most part it certainly is not. But on occasion it has breaking news and Tribune's Red Eye often swipes stories for its next edition. Other sites, like District 299 and Everyblock are more earnest than Chicagoist and actually attempt to distribute real news, minus the snark.
Together these sites make up the category killers of news. They don't want to serve everyone, just their specific, isolated niche. They do not pretend to replace the Tribune or Sun Times, but together they are dealing our daily newspapers a thousand tiny paper cuts in readership and ad revenue. Enough to kill them? Probably not. But in our post-modernist world, consumers want more choices, not less, and these category killers are here to stay.
This is the future home of Public Interest Journalism. A significant portion of Chicago learned about and rallied against the parking meter privatization at The Expired Meter. District 299 is the only place providing consistent news about Chicago's School Board. Service changes and CTA budget cuts are written about at CTA Tattler first and in more depth than our daily newspapers. You can learn more about zoning changes and neighborhood crime at Everyblock than in the dailies.
Talk to any reporter and they'll tell you that more than half of good reporting is getting information into daylight. Judging by the amount of information coming out into the open, it would seem to me that we are entering a new age of Public Interest Journalism that relies on many smaller, category killing publications, rather than mass market daily newspapers.
Dad, husband, MBA, homeowner, Roman Catholic, Cubs fan, media junkie and Democratic political consultant in Chicago. Drop Mike Fourcher a line at mike (at) fourcher-dot-net.
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