Expressing appreciation for the Pagosa Daily Post in his recent column, Gary Beatty shines a light on a key reason why the Daily Post stands out, in its coverage of community news.
Community news has been getting increasingly homogenized, it seems, over a considerable number of years, in media all around the country.
Mr. Beatty, with good reason, laments his local Florida newspaper being “a subsidiary of USA Today”… which, in turn, is “owned by the Ganett media corporation.”
Now… maybe you’re thinking I’ve got milk in mind, mentioning homogenized community news?
Homogenized milk can be great with coffee, and breakfast cereal, but homogenizing news… that’s a different story, considering that “blending unlike elements” is a definition of ‘homogenization.’
Often, unfortunately, when community papers are blended with big, corporate media companies, the end product can morph into homogenized news.
Try as they may to make news coverage seem local, it can wind up seeming blended, with unlike elements in stories.
This very well could be the result of business firms implementing cost-efficient initiatives, a fairly common occurrence when, as they say, in business, companies of varying sizes and scope ‘join forces.’ That’s a gentle way of describing big companies gobbling up small companies.
And, that’s when homogenization can happen, with news stories getting blended, with bits of news from here and there, so to speak. What readers, around the country, may wind up getting, in their ostensibly local community papers, may not truly and purely be local news.
That’s what I began realizing, reading stories in formerly independent, community newspapers, where I am, in northern California. There was a certain sameness to stories, published in different community papers, that were now under corporate media management.
When I was in my PR career, editors and reporters I’d been dealing with, for a long time, who were steeped in all the goings on in their respective communities, were — after being acquired, themselves, so to speak — covering bigger territories.
At times, I was feeling like the legendary comedians, Abbot and Costello, wondering, in comedy skits… Hey, who’s on first? That’s exactly what I was wondering, as reporters were being shifted about, like chess pieces on a chess board.
And so, I can’t agree more with Mr. Beatty’s point of view, on this particular subject… and with his views, regarding the quality of the Daily Post’s local news coverage, compared to that of “corporate news outlets.”
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.