I'm not sure what happened, but apparently Kim Underwood has left the employ of The Winston-Salem Journal. Since moving to Winston-Salem in '04 I've enjoyed reading Kim's work in the Journal and, more importantly to me, I've enjoyed shooting the breeze with him over a cup of coffee on a few occasions. I even had the opportunity to rub elbows with him for the day job when he covered the Triad Apartment Association's Labor of Love project last winter, and it was a great experience.
Apparently I'm not the only one who is bummed by Kim's leaving the paper. Linda Brinson, former Journal editorial page editor, wrote a "Letter to the Editor" about it:
For many years, his wise and gentle columns touched us all, particularly the columns about his dog, Buster, and the children in his life, Sparkle Girl and Doobins. Kim also is a skilled, highly professional reporterdevoted to fairness, integrity and ethics, qualities that are too often lacking in today’s journalism. He will be missed, and the Journal is diminished by his leaving.
Like I said, I don't know what happened, but I do know that the Journal's lost another good person.
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It is disheartening to see the loss of such good talent. I had the pleasure of meeting Kim a couple of times, and read his work religiously. As the Winston Salem Journal descends into such mediocrity because of the loss of talent that it becomes a leaflet of nothing but AP Wire bylines, I will finally give up on it. Until then, lets hope that the remaining local staff can hang on! People have stopped reading the Journal because there is not much local about it anymore.
Bring back the full staff you had, and I will be more interested in what is thrown on my driveway each day. Create a viable online source of LOCAL content, and I would subscribe to that!
Great points Paul. I think the vast majority of local papers around the country really screwed up when they started slashing payroll in the face of declining financial performance a few years back. My thinking is in line with yours: the one major competitive advantage they all had was that they employed the people with the most in-depth knowledge of the community and the best connections in the community, which meant that they were uniquely positioned to win the long-term war for local eyeballs. Sadly their corporate parents didnt see it that way and the race to the bottom was on.
And yes, lets hope that those that are still on the boat can hang on until they get things figured out.
But Jon, the WSJ has a story on “New England fishing rulemaking to be reviewed” and this Diddy; “Marijuana tracking on the way in Colorado”. And you can get the latest breaking news on bed bugs and stink bugs too. And in Traverse City Michigan scientists have determined that mussels in Lake Michigan may leave Asia Carp with nothing to eat. After all this is pertinent information all W-S residents are interested in. Right?
Well YD, at least the bed bugs and stink bugs are a story with a local angle. A while back I literally counted the total of articles written by the Journal staff and it was a very small number, but I dont want to imply that they arent working over there. One person can only research and write so many articles, so the simple answer is they need more hands on deck.
PJ3 is correct. Like other rags, the WSJ is mostly regurgitating wire releases. Bricks & mortar and personnel are two expenses businesses are cutting. Putting things behind a pay wall will come next to boost revenue.
Blockbuster added to the bottom line but alienated customers with its late fees. Airlines are doing the same with baggage fees. Media outlets and Newspapers will/are trying the same thing and will likely piss off a far greater number of readers making it a zero sum game. But you will never, ever, convince the current crop of MBA bean counters, otherwise.
Rarely does two plus two REALLY equal four.
We have had some class acts that have written for the W-S Journal. I hope that the ones that are left keep writing with their heart and soul. I have often wondered what a combined paper covering all of the Triad, could do.
Local copy goes beyond bylines. When reviewing local content, consider all the prep sports coverage, all the football games that are written up, the volleyball scores, the local notices on church bazaars and festivals, editorials on local issues, police briefs, the SAM questions and the obituaries (yes, those are paid, but it is local) — these are local news items that run w/o bylines. So counting bylines does not reflect local coverage, in my opinion.
Lisa, thats a really good point and the prep sports coverage is a great example of a kind of community journalism that could help all local news outlets in the long run. If Im not mistaken the prep coverage is often written by freelancers or locals who follow prep sports almost as an avocation. I think this works for a couple of reasons: the people providing the coverage are likely to attend games anyway and, truth be told, its not really hard news so theres not much risk of the paper getting in hot water if the facts are wrong. That model would be harder to do on something like local government, but I do think there are areas that the paper could get more aggressive with that kind of model.
I think one area where our community is really going to feel the diminished editorial capacity of the paper is in long term, in-depth and professional coverage of local government, education and regulatory matters. I do believe that the rise of social media and the ability of engaged amateurs to cover those areas is of some help, but I dont think it can replace the presence of professional journalists who spend an entire career developing expertise and connections. Im sure I sometimes come across as a too-harsh critic of the paper, but please believe me when I say that no one wants to see the paper survive and thrive more than I do. That, and the coupons, are why I still pay for the dead tree version:)