felixwas

The lead story in the local newspaper tonight splashes across five columns at the top of page 1 and continues at the top of page 2. It’s about how three County Legislature committees reviewed the proposed county budget yesterday but didn’t make any changes to it.

At least, that’s what the first paragraph said. I read that paragraph and thought, “Why would anybody continue reading?”

As somebody who loves newspapers, stories like this bother me. This story is all about process; it’s written for the politicians, not for the readers. It’s also full of numbers presented without meaningful context. After reading it, I have no idea how much the typical homeowner’s taxes will increase if the budget is passed as it stands. Nor do I have any idea how all of the proposed spending programs outlined in the story could affect my taxes.

And after wading through a swamp of direct quotations from a discussion about who should pay to run the county’s only airport (a matter that is far from resolved), I finally stumbled upon an issue that truly affects readers: how budget pressures are resulting in less maintenance of county roads. But it’s buried in the final two columns of the story; I guarantee most readers fled in boredom long before that point. And, naturally, all the talk about the roads is from politicians or county employees; there’s nothing there from people who drive the roads regularly and might know something about their deterioration: school bus drivers, say, or truckers, or state troopers who patrol the roads.

In her now-infamous column, Maureen Dowd of The New York Times criticized her then-colleague Judith Miller, saying something like “Investigative reporting is not stenography.” Delete the word “investigative,” and the idea still applies.

Newspapers wonder why they’re losing readers. It’s simple: Because they’re not printing much that people want to read. And that doesn’t mean newspapers have to pander to readers by filling their pages with fluff. Just take a look at all the political discourse found on blogs. There’s an appetite for Serious Stuff. But too many reporters have forgotten the recipe.