Hare is a journalist with a history. She’s reported from newsrooms in Minneapolis, Miami and Washington, D.C. among others, giving readers a first-hand look at the challenges these news organizations are facing in this new era of journalism.
Now she’s moving onto a new project. Hare is currently launching a weekly newsletter dedicated to exploring the future of local news. She’s calling it “Local Edition" because it's fitting, and because she's awesome.
Poynter is rightfully concerned for the future of local news. News, and the media that disseminates it, appears to be increasingly under threat. The transition from print to digital continues to unfold, the pace of news reporting is quickening across the country and the political climate poses serious challenges to local and national press.
Enter Hare, whose column will compliment Poynter’s larger local news project, the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative, which will report on the efforts of local publications throughout America.
When we think of news, we think of the big guys — The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. But it’s just as important to recognize and foster the efforts of newspapers in small communities.
The reporters from these papers are on the ground covering all the daily injustices that a national paper just doesn’t have the man-power or scope to pick up. Often times, these journalists are the ones who truly understand the implications an event has for a particular community.
They need to be protected. They need continued access to the right resources to get their pieces off the ground and onto the forefront of national stage. They need ways to continue telling the stories of their communities.
At The News-Letter, we’ve taken a similar approach to continued storytelling with our new email service. It’s a newsletter from The News-Letter. The newsletter lets students, parents, faculty and alumni keep up with our biggest stories and entices them to get further involved in the paper.
Local news sources need resources, but they also need to keep their audiences involved and wanting more. That’s been our challenge as we’ve moved through the years and refined our roles within the paper. Staying relevant, fast and accurate depends on our ability to condense information effectively. For the student who doesn’t have time to read a 3,000 word article or the parent who just needs a quick update, our newsletter is succinct and punchy.
The News-Letter is a local newspaper fully committed to serving the needs of our community, which includes more than just undergraduates. The actions taken here at Hopkins affect staff, faculty, graduate students, members of the surrounding community and often the future of Baltimore. And while we don’t have the Knight Foundation behind us, we can make just as concerted an effort to stay relevant.
Everyone has reason to worry about the future of the journalistic industry, even at a university where news is readily consumed and readily commented upon. It’s our job to adapt our processes to reflect the changing state of consumption on campus and in webs that extend outside Hopkins.
It’s impossible to ignore what is happening to journalism while still doing journalism. Our newsletter, and this column, is a team effort to prove this truth.
