My Side of the Fence

The danger isn't going too far. It's that we don't go far enough.

Mr. Buffett shoots the Messenger

Like so many other folks my age, one of my first jobs was delivering papers.  I well remember having to insert the sale sections, fold up the papers – had to do it tightly to minimize space in your bag as well as improved aero when you threw them – and the black ink all over the bag and my pants!  I rode my bike to deliver the paper.  If it was really lousy outside I might get mom to drive the route with me but that was rare.

The sad news is all over the web today that World Media Enterprises, the holding company that bought Media General, has decided to shutter our local paper.  It appears that, for now, this is the only paper in the fold to be killed.  My thoughts go out to the employees there, it cannot have been an easy place to work the past several years.  The Facebook page was a welcome addition but the website was poorly organized and just plain hard to use.  I'm sure that all of that combined to generate some serious uncertainty the past couple of years.

I am truly sorry to see the paper go.  I remember the articles back in the day – loaded with local content and flavor.  That was a different age and papers all over are still struggling to come to grips with how best to address the new (ish) digital order that has emerged.  I agree with those that mark the decline of our local paper but I can tell you from first hand experience that people did read the thing.  We could have ten Council meetings on painting City hall green and it wouldn't generate half the feedback that a single article in the JM would provide.  I think it a poverty that we no longer have a local paper.  A really great paper can serve as the hub for a communities identity as well as provoke serious debate on the direction of a locality.  The WaPo is still around but they generally only arrive on the scene when there's blood in the water, not to cover the mundane business of government in our little city.

I've heard from many folks over the years that feel that Council members (Board of Supervisors, etc) would be glad to see local papers go – that way there wouldn't be anyone watching – but it isn't true of any elected folks I know.  Honestly, it just makes our life harder.  It puts the City in the position that we have to push that much harder to get information out there and that information will have little or no analysis done on it.  It isn't the same as reporting, it's just a data dump and that's not nearly as useful to citizens.  In fact, you could safely argue that you really don't want the city in the position of doing anything other than just making the information available.  You don't want the government in a position of having to write the "news"!

On the digital front, there is the Patch but that website appears to be receiving less attention (at least Manassas Patch) than it has in the past.  Others have pointed out that blogs can fill the void.  I think that blogs might be part of the answer but they are no substitute for actual reporting by reporters.  Blogs are not, by and large, written by reporters whose mission is to strive to produce unbiased reporting on what they see and hear.  One might argue that "real" papers and "real" reporters aren't all that good at it either (and some don't even pretend) but there is a general presumption that they try.  After all, each has an institution to preserve and advance.  With bloggers that just isn't the case.  You can sit in your underwear in your basement and crank out a blog for $0.  You don't know with any certainty who is writing them and/or who is posting on the stories.  By and large, bloggers don't attend committee meetings where the gears of government turn.  It just isn't something that the blogs will be much help with: reporting on the machinations of government pretty much demands that you have paid staff to sit in those meetings and report on it.  Indeed, this admonition extends to my humble abode here:  I have tried in the past (and will again) to provide information on the budget but you shouldn't ever take my word for what happens during that process.  I try to be honest and straight about it but I'm essentially reporting on me!  That ain't good.  I think other bloggers try, to varying degrees, to present an honest case but there isn't that presumption of independence as with an actual paper.  

I will, however, end this missive by crediting the blogs – the early leaders were too conservative and bvbl – with unearthing and distributing information about the local political scene.  I know that when I was first elected, there were no outlets except for those two and the local paper has never even pretended to cover local politics.  It is in these niche areas that blogs can fill the void but reporting on gov't, outside of niche areas, is probably to tall an ask for volunteers….RIP MJM

 

5 Comments

  1. You forgot the great little Manassas Observor paper which shows up in the mailbox for free.  That has been a great local source of news and the reporters have done a great job of writing up Council business and other news.  If I was the publisher, I would see this as a chance to expand the frequency of the paper as there is potential for more advertising dollars, and giving us the "hometown newspaper – with your hometown news" once again.
     
    Your Mother drove you on your paper route when it was crappy weather?  Lucky you!  My Dad handed got me a military poncho (big enough to cover me and the bag), got a roll of plastic for me to wrap around my pants to (somewhat) keep them dry, and off I went on the bicycle delivering the Jacksonville NC Daily News. Shoot, even had to go out in a few Tropical Storms as the people expected their papers!  Of course, that always contributed to great tips when I did the collections 🙂

  2. andy

    November 15, 2012 at 6:42 am

    It was rare that I got a lift.  Also, the paper these days seems to show up in a plastic bag no matter the weather.  I recall always having to use a rubber band and bagging only if it was raining.

    I haven't seen the Observer in my mailbox lately….

  3. In an article in today's Washington Times about the closing of the News and Messenger, it stated that back in May, Mr. Buffett said he was looking to purchase newspapers in cities and towns where residents care deeply about where they live.  "If a citizenry cares little about its community, it will eventually care little about its newspaper".  Is this what Mr. Buffett thought about our community?  Do we really not care about what is going on?  Do we just come home to eat and sleep in Prince William County and not care about our local government politics and what is going on in the community?  It is hard to have a cohesive paper in PWC because the two ends of the county are sometimes mutally exclusive?. People in Manassas don't care what is happening in Woodbridge.  That is why the paper split years ago into the Potomac News and Manassas Journal Messenger.  It worked for awhile.  When I worked for the City, there would always be reporters at the Planning Commission meetings as well as City Council.  Reporters would come and get the agenda packets for the upcoming meetings.  I find it sad that yet another icon of our community is going away just like so many others.  Now we have another property for sale in the City.  It is getting harder to identify with the community I have known for over 42 years because it is changing.  Piece by piece it is evolving into a whole new identity.  I miss the old one, but maybe I am just sentimental for the old days.

  4. So where will those "NOTICES" that have to be posted in a local paper, for whatever time period, be posted?   Where has Manassas gone?  The election is over and we're now off the map?  Did Manassas sneak out in the middle of the night unbeknownst to me?  I'm sad! 
    Where will the "Steve Randolph's" of the future get their history from?  Where will I go to find out if I've pasted away?  I'm sad!
    Who will report on HS Sports? How will parents be able to fill scrap books with newspaper clippings of their childrens "15 minutes of fame"? Where will we find out who is the "Fugitive" of the week?  I'm sad!
    Where has Manassas gone?  We've become lost in the SUBURBS of DC…we're washed up, we don't exist…I'm sad!

  5. We're working on where the notices go.  As to where we go, it mainly depends on the will of the people to pay for a local newspaper….there is, of course, a value argument that goes along with it but ultimately it is what the market will bear.

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