Newspapers killed themselves when they destroyed beat reporting
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Today I heard that the Boston Globe announced layoffs in the news division. This announcement came after weeks of other signs that the newspaper industry is dying. And most are saying that the salvation of this industry lies in local reporting.
I had once been a local report and loved it. In the late 1990s, the writing was on the wall, not just because of changes due to the internet, but because newspapers were getting rid of their local focus and moving toward features and articles that were more “interesting.” No one wants to read about a school district news, I was told by my editors.
The art of beat reporting involved something that I’ve heard described by Benedictine fathers about the importance of place in relation to stability. Here are a few words on this aspect of Benedict’s rule by a nun from the mid-west.
The Rule of St. Benedict by Sister Jane Michele McClure, OSB
“By their monastic profession, Benedictines make three promises: stability, fidelity to the monastic way of life, and obedience. Though promises of poverty and chastity are implied in the Benedictine way, stability, fidelity, and obedience receive primary attention in the Rule — perhaps because of their close relationship with community life.
Stability means that the monastic pledges lifelong commitment to a particular community. To limit oneself voluntarily to one place with one group of people for the rest of one’s life makes a powerful statement. Contentment and fulfillment do not exist in constant change; true happiness cannot necessarily be found anywhere other than in this place and this time. For Benedictines, stability proclaims rootedness, at-homeness, that this place and this monastic family will endure.”
I found these truths to work for being a beat report. I was committed to one community for a certain amount of time. In fact, it was never until the third year that you were really part of the community enough to have any kind of impact or influence for it took three years to build the appropriate intimacy and trust.
