Two weeks in a row I get to go off on a rant. Just what have I done to deserve this?
As most of you know, the regular Monday through Friday NJ Highlands News posts stick mainly to news directly or indirectly related to NJ Highlands issues. The Weekend Edition usually contains “leftovers” from the prior week, plus any “bigger picture” articles that I may run across while scouring the web for NJ news, often from out-of-state or non-Highlands sources, but things I feel might be of interest to you as readers. Today’s Weekend Edition is a perfect example; articles from Maine to Minnesota; Environmental Commission appointments to NJ fiscal issues; idling diesels to diesel in fracking fluids; and a blog post about a Daily Record sports editor’s last hurrah. Which brings me to my rant.
Friday was the last day of employment for half the staff at the Daily Record, Morris County’s “local” Gannett paper. And just another in a series of very sad days for journalism in New Jersey. Notably lost to us in this round of layoffs was Fred Snowflack, a 12-year editorial page veteran who asked the tough questions of activists and government officials alike, and Highlands issues reporter Colleen O’Dea, a top-notch reporter who always presented all sides of important Highlands issues. They will both be missed.
No word yet on who their replacements (if any) will be at the DR. The reorganization of the paper means fewer bodies to cover our local stories, story editors in Asbury Park who are completely unfamiliar with the local lay-of-the-land and have no feel for importance of local issues.
Talking to DR folks prior to Friday’s layoff, the consensus is that “the powers that be do not really care about news,” only the bottom line. That the beats “of the seven remaining reporters are going to be determined based on the results of ‘market research analysis” and not local demands or knowledge, and that “what is going to be left, I fear, is going to be even less news than we have already been providing.” Proof of failure of the management at the DR has been showing for some time now, in my opinion.
Some examples:
- A story editors’ refusal to allow a reporter to cover TCE contamination in drinking water of 18 homes in Byram several years ago, all the way through the recent EPA Superfund designation of that same site because it was “outside our readership area” – which may surprise the people on my block and all over Byram who subscribe to the DR.
- Refusal of a story editor and the executive editor to allow a reporter to cover the historic story of the Highlands Council’s first municipality to achieve Conformance and Center designation for almost two weeks after the fact as “not all stories are handled as breaking news” (I have the email from Mr. Flachsenhaar to prove that).
- A story editor’s refusal to allow a reporter to cover last Thursday’s filing with the NJ BPU by Earthjustice and the Eastern Environmental Law Clinic to reopen the case on the Susquehanna-Roseland power line project because it was “Just not big enough.” (Kudos to Bruce Scruton of the New Jersey Herald for doing a great piece and proving that DR editor wrong.) But they did find that “Mountain Lakes police looking for owner of wedding ring lost in 2004” was big enough to make the paper.
- Finally, the Daily Record sports column highlighted in Jim Hopkins’ Gannett Blog post, written by Frank DiLeo, as his final farewell telling the straight story on his being laid-off to his readers. One can only assume that this was some snuck into the print edition of the paper (it does not appear online) since the management of the paper refused Fred Snowflack a farewell column of his own. A commenter on the blog summed it up well:“The fact that this ran speaks volumes about the kind of news operations Gannett is running all over the country. No one is left to mind the store. Sad. Sad. Sad.“
I’m becoming frustrated for two reasons, both of which will be impacting all of you as well. It is becoming more and more difficult to put together these daily Highlands news compilations without news being covered and reported, and the sprouting-like-weeds of “hyper-local” news blogs are creating a crop of “hyper-local reporters” simply fixated on their own backyards and incapable of noticing local and regional trends or putting their stories into perspective in the grander scheme of things. Local news is becoming quantity, not quality.
If I were giving the “State of the Union” speech for local print media, I would have to say “Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Highlanders, the state of our media today is #%!+@!”
Fortunately, there are some potentially good new digital news sources popping up as well. NJSpotlight.com has been presenting a wealth of in-depth news reporting “Where issues matter” – here’s hoping they will be able to expand their environmental coverage to pick up where traditional print has now dropped the ball entirely in most of the state. Hopefully they don’t begin to suffer the same illness as newjerseynewsroom.com has after showing so much promise out of the gate, becoming a depository for press release masquerading as news and not a source of in-depth, hard-hitting original reporting.
In the mean time, lets hope the talented news people like Fred, Colleen, and the rest of their now-unemployed colleagues show up again soon to ply their trade somewhere local. Please join me in thanking them for their valuable contributions to our communities over the past many years, and wishing them all the best of luck in these trying economic times.