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Topics:
Civic Communication
Spokane
Spokesman-Review
The Spokane
Spokesman-Review has revamped its editorial and opinion pages,
supported back-yard discussions on the community, and raised citizen
awareness of river front issues in a series of civic journalism
projects. Case studies plus.
Index
The
Pizza Papers
River Forum
Contents
The
Pizza Papers
The
Pizza Papers
In August
1993, more than 1,500 area residents took up the Spokesman-Review's
offer of a free pizza for anyone sponsoring a backyard get-together
to discuss hopes, fears and suggested changes for the community.
The paper gathered questionnaires from these meetings, published
results and sent comments to elected officials. The initiative
was a prelude to a later research visit by urban affairs consultant
Neal Peirce, under the sponsorship of the Spokesman-Review and
other area organizations. That work in turn was followed by the
paper's own focus-group and interview research to gauge community
attitudes about the likelihood for change, which formed the basis
of "Values for a Growth Decade." Readers responding to an invitation
for comment were invited to one of three public forums a month
after publication; 400 attended. The paper also hosted a discussion
on the topics with the local public television station. In response,
a variety of citizen recommendations for improving local government
were adopted.
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.
Spokane
Spokesman-Review (newspaper)
999 W. Riverside
P.O. Box 2160
(509) 459-5423 (phone)
(509) 459-5482 (fax)
Ownership
Cowles Publishing Co
No. newsroom employees: 150 FTE
Circulation
122,000 (daily)
155,000 (Sunday)
Circulation Area(population)
Spokane; Couer d'Alene, Idaho; 17 outlying counties in Washington,
Idaho, Montana (500,000)
Initiative
The Pizza Papers/Values for a growth decade
Dates
August 1993-February 1994
Lead
Editor
Chris Peck, Managing Editor
What
are the goals of the initiative?
The paper told participants that the project's mission was simply
"to build regional consensus on a set of core values to help guide
political, economic and social decisions through the 1990s."
What
does the initiative entail?
For the Pizza Papers, participants sent names, addresses, phones
and a summary of backyard conversations in on a standard form.
The Peirce Report followed the consultant's standard design, with
Peirce and a small team of urban affairs experts conducting a
range of community interviews and making recommendations. Subsequently,
the paper convened eight focus groups to gauge "how optimistic
or pessimistic various citizen groups were about the region,"
Peck said. Results of follow-up interviews with newcomers, longtime
residents and political leaders were compared with focus findings.
The paper published what it learned in a package called "Values
for a Growth Decade." Public forums and the public television
broadcasts followed.
How
many people were working on it?
In addition to the Peirce team, about six news staffers.
What
does it look like in the newspaper?
The Peirce Report ran over four days in early 1994. The display
- full pages, full color, broadsheet format - was published with
close attention to clarity and design excellence. Photographs
were matched to voices "heard" in the reports. Graphs and charts
were needed to give visual impact to public opinions on affordability
of housing, neighborhood safety, geography and the environment.
Response
to the Initiative
In
the newsroom:
The newsroom at first responded cautiously to the Pizza Papers,
Peck said, but enthusiasm built as public reactions poured in.
National attention also improved newsroom response. Utne Reader
picked up on the story; Editor and Publisher, the Pacific Northwest
Newspaper Association, and a number of other newspapers have written
or inquired about the Pizza Papers.
Reaction
to the Peirce team was mixed. Some members of the news staff considered
the team's fee too expensive and believed their reporters could
have done the job. This sentiment was offset somewhat when a major
policy recommendation in the report - to combine city and county
government - moved onto the public agenda.
Elements
incorporated into regular newsroom routines and/or culture:
Responses from the Pizza Papers created an instant data base of
new sources for comments on community issues and a new resource
for confronting issues that seemed about to overwhelm the region:
rapid growth, escalating housing costs, rising crime rates and
dissatisfaction with government responsiveness.
In
the community:
Enthusiastic public response pressured the paper to continue as
lead player in community reform and development. Instead, the
paper convened a meeting for citizens interested in tracking these
issues; out of that meeting a new organization emerged.
Among
political leaders:
The Pizza Papers became a focal point of discussion among public
officials and in public meetings.
Did
any outside group pick up the newspaper's initiative and carry
it further?
Following the Pizza Papers, the Peirce Report, "Values for a Growth
Decade," and subsequent forums, the local group charged with rewriting
the Spokane County government charter adopted the entire package
of the Spokesman-Review's project recommendations on improving
local government. "Vision Spokane" is the organization resulting
from the paper's effort to hand off responsibility for citizen
review of development issues.
What's
next:
Newsroom on Wheels: This spring, the paper will set up
roving newsrooms in outlying communities and at special events
to meet the public, gather story ideas, and ask for more first-person
commentary.
News Extra: By the end of 1994, the paper hopes to offer
deeper, more detailed coverage of certain news categories to readers
for an additional fee. This may include extra sports, business
or gardening new to those who sign up for the service; subscribers
also would have access to the newspaper's electronic news and
photo archives.
Newspaper as reference guide: The paper is developing a
new content plan that will attempt to build in a reference point
in every major story, explaining how readers can get more information
on a subject or become more actively involved in the issue discussed.
- RCN, 3/94
Update
The paper
"shifted back into straight journalism" on issues raised in Values
for a Growth Decade, handing off responsibility for the work itself
to Vision Spokane, a group of neighborhood activists and non-profit
developers. The group is trying to figure out a process that gives
citizens input and direction in decisions about the type of development
that should occur. The organization was established in March 1994,
when the paper convened a breakfast meeting for citizens interested
in carrying forward development planning and review.
Together,
the Pizza Papers, the Peirce Report and Values for a Growth Decade
were the starting point for continuing newsroom reflection on
the connections between the paper and area residents. In anticipation
of a general rethinking of the paper's content and organization,
the subject is the charge for one of four newsroom task forces
that grew out of a newsroom survey. Others are looking at newsroom
culture, risktaking and rewards; total-content editing and design,
which encompasses beat structures; and "editorial add-ons," such
as on-line services, etc.
Peck is
asking the "connections" task force to focus immediately on areas
of conflict between public journalism and a more traditional approach.
"That's the issue it always comes back to: this isn't journalism
and it violates every tenet of ethical journalism," Peck said.
In Spokane, the beginning definition of public journalism centers
around the newspaper as a force for helping readers become better
citizens; Peck is asking the task force to work up a fuller definition
from there.
The work
takes place as staffers complete a survey that asks what newsroom
culture rewards today, what it should reward, and how to get there.
"Can you pick up identifiable pieces to change that in the end
will change everything?" Peck asks. "You change everything all
at once, it creates the editor or the driver as messiah or god.
That doesn't work; I'm wary of that. I'd rather hear from staff
that they want to be part of it, but you have to put some ideas
out there."
Update written
by Lisa Austin, Assistant Director of the Project on Public Life
and the Press. Lisa is also a member of the CPN Journalism editorial
team.
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
Index
The
Pizza Papers
River Forum
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