Steve Yelvington has a terrific post on the three roles that local news operations need to fulfill: Town Crier, Town Expert and Town Square. Most journalists are very good at the Town Crier role; the other two, not so much.
As Steve writes, "News is not enough. ... The other roles aren't secondary. They're coequal, and they're grossly neglected by most local news websites."
Right on. But how to do fulfill those roles–which are much better advertising/revenue draws than news, btw–in a time of limited or declining resources? Hint: Ask your readers to help.
Steve's post is excellent. It's required reading for anybody who wants to find ways to better serve local audiences.
To your point -- journalists need to realize they are not always the expert. They need to include readers in creation of the news and do it in a way that's more than quotes and letters to the editor.
Posted by: Charles Barthold | January 29, 2009 at 12:09 PM