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Topics:
Civic Communication
St.
Paul Pioneer Press
Peirce Report
The
Pioneer-Press commissioned author and syndicated columnist Neal
Peirce and a team of urban affairs experts to study St. Paul and
its future and to recommend a plan of action. The effort was financed
with assistance from area foundations and the Knight Foundation,
and developed in cooperation with Twin Cities Public Television.
The result was published in November 1991 in a 16-page tab, focused
on culture, leadership, and neighborhoods. It also was summarized
in a 90-minute video report broadcast by the local PBS affiliate
and discussed in three community forums, organized by civic groups
and foundations. An ad hoc group of community leaders, organized
by one of the foundations involved, is tracking the report and
has taken it further. Related efforts included neighborhood candidates'
forums during the 1992 mayoral election, organized and financed
by the paper; a year-long editorial-page focus on positive neighborhood
developments; and a series of 1993 forums about trends in city
planning and governance, cosponsored by Macalester College, whose
speakers included Peirce. In early 1994, the paper devoted its
editorial pages for two weeks to riverfront development, prompting
a mayoral conference that drew 1,200 citizens.
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.
St.
Paul Pioneer Press
(newspaper)
345 Cedar Street
St. Paul, MN 55101-1057
(612) 228-5544 (phone)
(800) 950-9080 (toll-free)
(612) 228-5564 (fax)
Ownership
Knight-Ridder
No. newsroom employees: 180
Circulation
219,000 (daily)
278,000 (Sunday)
Circulation Area (pop.)
Three Minnesota counties: Ramsey, Washington and Dakota; three
Wisconsin counties: Pierce, Polk, St. Croix (800,000)
Initiative
Peirce Report
Dates
November 1991
Lead
Editor
Ron Clark, editorial page editor
Executive
in charge
(If different from above)
Walker Lundy, editor
When
and how did this initiative get started?
When the city was adrift after the resignation of a strong, long-tenured
mayor, Editorial Page Editor Ron Clark found his concerns about
the city's direction were shared by leaders of two area foundations.
They were willing to fund a project. The concern coincided with
Knight-Ridder CEO James Batten's call for stronger community leadership
roles.
What
are the goals of the initiative?
To initiate a productive dialogue about the community's future
that could lead to more far-sighted action.
What
does the initiative entail?
Clark lined up foundation funding and the assistance of public
broadcasters. Peirce and his team of two interviewed 75 area leaders
to develop the printed and video versions of the report. During
publication week, the video report was broadcast, the local Citizen's
League co-sponsored two forums and one of the sponsoring foundations
sponsored a third, featuring Peirce.
How
many people are working on it?
At the newspaper, Clark took primary responsibility for the report,
though graphic artists, photographers and the usual design team
saw the project through publication.
What
does it look like in the newspaper?
The Peirce Report was published in four parts and reprinted in
a 16-page broadsheet.
Response
to the Initiative
In
the newsroom:
Dismal. Newsroom staffers believed they could have produced a
report as good as Peirce's, given similar resources. Lack of newsroom
buy-in for a project initiated by the editorial page staff has
hindered ongoing coverage of the recommendation in the report.
Elements
incorporated into regular newsroom routines and/or culture:
On the editorial pages, Clark initiated a year-long focus on neighborhoods,
following a report recommendation, and has helped organize subsequent
community issues forums.
In
the community:
Among opinion leaders, support for the project was generally solid.
However, a Peirce criticism of the city's public employee union
generated considerable controversy and in some ways overshadowed
many other of its elements.
Reaction
among political leaders:
Following a central Peirce recommendation that St. Paul capitalize
on cultural resources, the mayor established a commission to evaluate
those resources. Chaired by the publisher of the Pioneer Press,
the group recommended a 1/2-cent sales tax to improve the civic
center and strengthen the cultural corridor. The tax took effect
in late 1993.
In 1994,
concentrated editorial-page focus on riverfront development prompted
a mayoral conference.
Did
any outside group pick up the newspaper's initiative and carry
it further?
One of the funding foundations, and other interested parties in
the community, organized an ad hoc group of leaders around the
report. They produced an inventory of community needs, assets
and liabilities and a series of benchmark studies. The St. Paul
Chamber of Commerce placed a number of Peirce recommendations
on its agenda, including plans to launch a trolley and the possibility
of creating a cooperative university center to pool academic resources.
Overall
lessons - successes and failures:
Clark would push for early and extensive newsroom buy-in on any
future projects, working more actively with the editor to "get
it on their radar screens and keep it there." He also would include
more area organizations to promote and organize dialogue around
an initiative to make understanding of issues involved broader
and deeper.
Case study
written by Lisa Austin, Assistant Director of the Project on Public
Life and the Press, October 1993. Lisa is also a member of the
CPN Journalism ditorial team.
Update
Public journalism
is still an edit page "banner" with the rest of the paper apparently
looking the other way. Skepticism persists among those who simply
have not been drawn into the concept and its practice. Editorial
Page Editor Ron Clark wonders if he, himself, should be more evangelistic
at his paper, absent other leadership to make the case for public
journalism.
Clark continues
to innovate on the editorial page. In early 1994, both editorial
and op-ed pages focused for two weeks on riverfront development
in St. Paul, an attempt to generate public interest on par with
the engagement Twin City residents have with their lakes. This
led the city's new mayor to hold a conference "on a Sunday in
windowless conference room in St. Paul and 1,200 people came out,"
Clark recalls.
The goal
of the riverfront project, Clark explains, was to incorporate
the journalism approaches of his editorial page into the daily
life of the newspaper. "But we're not there yet," he says. "The
project really did not advance us very much. We hope to do it
more frequently. At least we have broken down many walls that
once divided the community."
Many citizens
are calling and writing to ask why the paper doesn't do more similarly
focused projects. Clark agrees with Kettering Foundation findings
that citizens simply do not have enough places to gather information
on issues. Clark believes newspapers can help provide such space;
but, as with the Pioneer-Press, they do not do it often enough.
- 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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