This post is by Polly Kreisman, the self-described “editrix” of theloopny.com and mind behind InvestigateNY.com. The sites are trying to help define new journalism, and are grassroots efforts. We asked Polly to tell us more about her adventures.
– Steve
I am an obsessive journalist the way some people kayak or collect star trek trinkets. I can’t help seeing the world the way I believe it should be written or videotaped or edited. And then I can’t help reporting it.
A bit of a problem with the “legacy media” as some are calling it, is that it is eroding like the sands of time.
And how are some of us trying to solve that problem? By creating our own platforms, our own tiny newsrooms. The buzz term is Entrepreneurial Journalism. Another buzz term is Insanity. But I’m determined.
Venture #1 is in my hometown in Westchester County, NY, where I am the self-named editrix of the hyperlocal news site, theLoop.
But it’s more like the Wild West. There’s no assignment editor sending you to an apartment fire. There’s no wall of silence between your story and its audience. There’s no beginning, middle or end to your day. And there’s no more ‘one thing’ to call yourself. You’re the producer, reporter, producer/reporter, writer, managing editor, cameraperson and union.
I have been trying to write this blog post since 9:30 am. (Actually, since July 12.) It is now 7:16pm. In the interim, I have had to write and send out my bi-weekly newsletter, upload four new articles, format the artwork for a new advertiser and put it in the ad server, finish writing a business plan, field emails with news and content to post and then post it, gently kick my two 8-year olds out of my home office (twice), and plan the next installment of LoopTV…all after a meeting today regarding Venture #2.
Venture #2 is called InvestigateNY, and is inspired by an emerging model in this country in investigative reporting. At InvestigativeNewsNetwork.org, you will find the names of about 40 nonprofit regional journalism centers, many partnered with Universities and supported by grants, pushing the kind of stories and content to all platforms of media that we used to take for granted. We hope to be doing the same in New York by the fall.
My goals for today were to read virtual piles of articles I have saved about new business models in journalism and how to monetize (or as we used to say, make money), review grant applications and reach out to potential media partners. Never got to that.
So while all this entrepreneurialism can feed my news jones… and sometimes feed my family, many of us find ourselves doing all those jobs we considered impure back when the only goal was do better stories than the competition and keep a six-figure gig. I have had to wear hats I only feared were in the closet: Business Manager, Ad Sales (ew!), Computer Programmer, Pencil Pusher, Event Planner, Graphic Artist, Office Supply Acquisition, PR person and Accountant.
Then there’s the micro-version of things that will never change: Instead of the ballsy “Eat, Drink and Be Wary” segments we did at WWOR TV (anyone remember the rats at the Bagel factory on the West Side Highway?) or that month upon month – long siege with the Korean-American community excoriating my 7-months pregnant self and WPIX TV for finding (and confirming on video and in lab testing) that certain members were breeding dogs for the restaurant trade — it’s the local coffee bar in Larchmont, NY where I found rats dancing up a storm through the window. That proprietor, for a year, tried to shut us down, much the way the Korean Community tried to extract a retraction from the station, and much the way the H & H Bagel CEO came on the set with me one night and insisted I put the mice in the video. Only this time, I made nice and gave the guy a free ad. I had to. I live in this town.
One of the things I loved about being a reporter was the ability to do something new every day, meet people I never would have otherwise and learn about their jobs, which were so different than the one I had. And maybe along the way I can pass something of meaning on to someone, somewhere. And really, in that way, nothing’s changed.
Robert Niles, a digital pioneer, a man with two very profitable websites, one about violins, the other about theme parks, told a group of online journalists at a Knight Digital Media Center entrepreneurial boot camp recently, that journalists today should strive to “still have a chair when the music stops.” Maybe a roomful of them. The best way to do that, he said, is to always have more than one chair, even if you build it yourself.
And that’s the way things have changed the most.