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Topics: Civic Communication
Columbus
Ledger-Enquirer
Education 2000
Launched in January 1994 to move education "to
the front burner" in the community, a major reporting initiative
features weekly takeouts on a full range of education issues.
An advisory panel of citizens meets with newspaper staff every
other month to critique the reports and to help set the weekly
story agenda. Following a plan developed in 1993 by staff members
across the newspaper, the initiative also includes efforts to
expand the paper's Newspaper in Education and local adopt-a-school
programs and to enhance an existing paper-sponsored recognition
program for teachers and students.
A
case study by Project
on Public Life and the Press
New York University, Department of Journalism, 10 Washington
Pl.
New York, NY 10003, (212) 998-3793
©
Project on Public Life and the Press,1994. The Project is funded
by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Columbus
Ledger-Enquirer (newspaper)
P.O. Box 711
Columbus, GA 31944-1099
(706) 324-5526 (phone)
(706) 576-6290 (fax)
Ownership
Knight-Ridder
No. newsroom employees: 66 FTE
Circulation
55,000 (daily)
70,000 (Sunday)
Circulation area (Pop.):
Columbus/Muscogee County and Harris County, Ga.; Phoenix City,
Ala.; Lee and Russell County, Ala. (250,000)
Initiative
Education 2000
Dates
Early 1993-present
Lead Editor
Al Johnson, executive editor
When
and how did this initiative get started?
In early 1993, Publisher Billy Watson convened 30-35 community
leaders - in groups of five or six - to identify the community's
most pressing problems. Watson was encouraged by community support.
"People said, 'Do something else like Beyond 2000,' " a 1988-1990
initiative in which the paper actively convened public conversation
on the community's future and helped establish a local leadership
group. In the 1993 meetings, education and race relations emerged
as the top priorities. The paper settled on education as a project
because it encompassed race relations (the local NAACP has a suit
pending against the school system) and because the paper's leaders
believed the topic offered more opportunities for direct action.
What
are the goals of the initiative?
Editorial Page Editor Billy Winn says the object of the project
is to move education to "the front burner" in the community. Al
Johnson, the executive editor, defines goals broadly: "To bring
attention to the successes, the failures and the factors that
impact the quality and kind of education received by school-age
youth in Muscogee County....To awaken the community and in general
to offer solutions to whatever may be impacting education in a
negative fashion." Watson, the publisher, is eager to see the
project increase the newspaper's involvement in the community
as a corporate citizen; that is part of his decision to involve
employees from across the newsroom. As a secondary goal, Watson
said, the project will help overcome the negative image any paper
develops in its community by reporting controversy and "negative"
news.
What
does the initiative entail?
Assignments range across the staff and have, so far in 1994, focused
on health and learning; vocational education; school budgeting;
business as a partner in education; the role of families in education;
testing, the money trail in education spending; the NAACP suit
spotlighting integration and desegregation issues in the community;
and the disparate quality in individual schools in different parts
of Columbus.
Al Johnson says: "I've learned that a project
like this must be a total newspaper project, not just the newsroom,
and that everybody signs on early." After choosing education as
a project subject in discussions with community leaders, a company-wide
committee that developed the initiative encompassed staff from
the newsroom, advertising, PR, marketing and newspaper in education
departments. Sixteen people on a community advisory panel critique
the reports - weekly at the outset, bimonthly by mid-year - and
to help the paper set the weekly story agenda. This continues
Watson's and Johnson's 1993 effort to bring in citizens "to tell
us what they felt," said Johnson.
How
many people will work on it?
Contributors from the metro staff; the living staff and sports
are feeding stories to the series.
What
does it look like in the newspaper?
"Real pretty," as one of the paper's top editors puts it. The
first article ran four columns on a Sunday front page. The most
recent article ran for 13 columns plus an editorial page comment.
The extensive coverage is not without its risks, editors admit.
"We may be asking readers to swallow a lot to digest so much detailed
reporting on a subject weĠre hitting week after week," one newsroom
executive says, adding that illiteracy runs very high in the metropolitan
area. Nor has there been any collaboration in the project with
local broadcasters to reach those who watch and listen but do
not read.
Response to the Initiative
In
the newsroom:
Because so many staff members are involved, says Johnson, "We've
discovered through the project a big capacity to talk with each
other. It's clear that this is a 'big' effort and people want
a part of it. Ambitious reporters, especially, want to be involved."
However, the project has generated some resistance from reporters
who believe the paper's routine day-to-day coverage obviates a
special project, but education-beat coverage is not proscribed
by the project. Johnson does detect improved reporting on education.
Stories reflect more thorough research and a greater depth of
understanding.
When the project was announced in August, it
"generated more excitement and enthusiasm than anything else since
I have been here," Johnson said. He is careful to delineate the
boundaries of newsroom involvement, as the Beyond 2000 project
had created substantial concern and wariness about editorial activism.
In
the community:
Johnson reports only modest changes, by March 1994, in public
attention to education. But there is continuing evidence of citizen
readiness to enter into newsroom discussions which, he says, are
sometimes so valuable that stories can be written right out of
the conversations. "In the process," Johnson notes, "the paper
is getting a reputation that it really cares about education."
By mid-year an offshoot of the project was the
formation of "The Columbus Education Partnership," an independent
steering committee for educational reform; Johnson has agreed
to participate. The Chamber of Commerce has formed an "Education
2000" committee; Editorial Page Editor Billy Winn is a member
of one of its subcommittees.
Case study written by Lisa Austin, Assistant
Director of the Project on Public Life and the Press, March 1994.
Lisa is also a member of the CPN Journalism editorial team.
Update
"The Education Project" is moving along as strongly
as ever, says Executive Editor Al Johnson. He thinks it is gradually
catching on with readers, although there is not a whole lot of
community response. Nor has the project prompted any major newsroom
restructuring or change in response to the community. There are
no teams operating on coverage, says Johnson. "We're just staying
with the present way of doing things." There is still an agenda
of 52 stories for the year of "The Education Project," with some
sequence shifts as needed. There are advance monthly memos to
the citizen advisors to alert them to the paper's project plans;
they are asked to respond with corrections or suggestions. There
are some indications that some reporters are keeping their distance
from the project, preferring to proceed with business as usual
on their traditional assignments. Johnson describes the project
less in terms of "community journalism," than in terms of "just
good reporting." "That's what public journalism is - good reporting,"
he believes.
- RCN, 5/94
More Information
Project on Public Life and the Press
New York University
Department of Journalism
10 Washington Pl.
New York, NY 10003
(212) 998-3793
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