Facepage

Just so you know, the official Berlin Reporter Facebook page is now up, and I’ve been handed the reins. Because it’s a weird week with the holiday, there won’t be any council in this Tuesday’s paper. (See, it is a weird week—normally the paper comes out on Wednesday.) So I’ll be giving a brief summary and wrap up on the Facebook page.

That digital revolution in media is still supported by the wobbling knees of the print edition. Berlin is holding its own for now, but hopefully someone will come up with the next model before the knees buckle. For now, however, the BR facepage will have to do.

J–Time

I went to a presentation by the New Hampshire Press Association on Thursday where presenters talked to high school students about what it means to be a reporter. There were representatives from a number of northern New Hampshire papers, including both Berlin papers, and people from the southern part of the state.
The reporters from the southern part of the state talked about a newsroom with three full-time photographers, and assignment editors, copy editors, firewalls between the advertising side of the industry and tens of thousands of subscribers.
Berlin isn’t like that. Northern New Hampshire isn’t like that. The owner of the News and Sentinel spoke; she is both the editor and the publisher of that paper. At the Reporter I am the only full-time person—the sports reporter is part-time and the editor and other reporters are shared with the Democrat. At the daily the managing editor is a part-time position.
Whatever the role of journalism in a society, its capacity is only so great as its infrastructure. At every city meeting I wonder what would happen if there was no press there. Most members of the public don’t attend council meetings, much less the sub-committees and various boards. I certainly can’t cover all of them, but between the two papers in Berlin someone is usually at every meeting.
What happens if that falls apart? Every paper seems to be struggling. Even the Conway version of the daily is down from six days a week to five. The public is protected by a broken business model, and there is nothing on the horizon to fix or replace it.
If you think most public officials are crooks, this may be a problem for you. If, however, you’re generally a trusting person then this isn’t a big deal. But with scandals being broken daily (or even monthly or yearly on a local basis) it might be disastrous to do without.
I have to admit, the solution isn’t easy. It is like engaging residents of Berlin to civic participation. My job would be less important if every Monday the aisles were full in city hall. Instead of my translation people would have heard it for themselves.
But at the same time those people would need a fact-checker. The public system currently in place was meant to be run with a vigorous press, but in Berlin now there are already strains on that system. It seems absurd that some day that press may dissolve completely, but without a business model what have you got?
I was talking to a friend at the program on Thursday who said he’d like to start a North Country non-profit dedicated to reporting on the region’s issues. I wonder how that would work, be received, or survive. I wonder if people see enough value in journalism to give to it. I cherish NHPR News, which is a big reason why I give to that organization, but their commitment to reporting is limited in scope. Would another venue have a longer reach?
There are a lot of issues in Berlin right now, many of them quite important. But there is also a distinct lack of resources. Three reporters for a city, working for different publications, is a small crew for a place with as much going on as Berlin. I also wonder if most citizens would call themselves engaged, or if they are simply letting Berlin run itself.
It’s one more strain on an already strained city. This one, however, I don’t see the path out from.

Taxes, Improvements, Politicians and Papers

I am supposed to meet with Ron Goudreau and Paul Grenier (separately) to talk capital improvements and taxes. Mr. Grenier said the bond will result in at least a $1.67 increase in the tax rate, which currently is $29.82. Mr. Goudreau said the $29.82 includes the first year’s repayment on the bond. There won’t be a tax increase, he said, because the bond payments are already figured into the tax rate.
I minored in economics, so hopefully I have enough financial understanding to sort this out for the voters. I don’t think it’s enough for a reporter to write down what people are saying; they have to dig into the numbers and analyze what’s really there. There were sharp words at Monday’s meeting, and I reported them as well as I could. Now it’s time for me to look into the numbers behind the numbers.
So expect that in next week’s Berlin Reporter. I’m glad there are still people out there willing to pay the 50 cents. It keeps me in a job, doing what I love.

Side notes:

Mayoral debate at the Berlin city hall auditorium, Wednesday, October 28, at 6:30 p.m. Come see who you’re voting for and learn their positions.
It is constructive remarks like those LPJ has received recently that convince me to allow anonymous comments. Glad to see the discussion stay clean. I appreciate people posting, no matter the viewpoint, as long as their goal is to build a better Berlin. So thanks.
I bought the domain lastprintjournalist.com. I just put in a placeholder because I haven’t built the site yet, but I feel like I’ve got a fairly consistent thing going here, and I’d like to build it out. Journalists have to have websites these days, and I’m no exception. I’m not looking to move on from the Reporter, but I’m always looking for freelance opportunities, and if I’ve got a website to direct people to so they can see some of my work, it helps. Eventually I hope to have the the blog there, to house everything in one place, but for now I’m just saving my spot.
There’s a public hearing next Tuesday about the ATV trail.
It’s time to donate to NHPR. I freelance for them occasionally, and I’ll be reporting on Berlin’s ATV trail sometime in the next few weeks. They need money to pay me, so please, help me out by helping them.

I reread my story about Laidlaw investors saying they intend to send Mr. Grenier campaign contributions. It’s funny, but by the time stories come out I haven’t looked at them in a week. When I received calls and criticism about it, I hadn’t looked at it in a while. But after reading the story today I realize how off base those comments are. I thought maybe I’d screwed something up and been unfair to Mr. Grenier. But no, I was right on, and if I had to do it again I’d write the same story. I represented Mr. Borowski fairly, including his ties to the area and his good reasons for wanting to see Laidlaw succeed. I represented Mr. Grenier fairly as well, including his hesitation before he said he would reject any money from outside the city.
I thought maybe I’d left those things out. I thought maybe I’d been too worried about length and edited the story down. But no, I didn’t, I represented the various parties fairly and accurately. And in the end, no one in the story looks all that bad.

Sometimes accurate reporting makes people look like crap. That sucks, but that’s what I’m there for. Maybe there is some meeting going on in Berlin that, if made public, would make everyone look like jerks. I hope to be there. A few phone calls and complaints aren’t going to scare me off. My goal isn’t to make anyone look bad. In fact, no one has to answer to me. They are answering to the residents of Berlin. And of Gorham. And Milan, Dummer, Randolph and Shelburne. I’m asking questions for those people, because they don’t have the time to. It takes more than calling a fair story biased to make me stop. Or a page full of numbers.

P.S. Ryan — You don’t want to buy the paper if you stay in city government, because I won’t be able to curb my reporting for your sake. Sometime you’ll make an asinine comment that I’ll put in the paper, and you’ll want to fire me, and I’ll only have been doing my job, and it’ll be a great big mess. I agree, I’d like to see more people reading the Reporter. But the paper doesn’t come with the printing press. The daily owns their press. It’s in Conway and it prints three other daily papers; that makes their business viable. The Reporter is owned by Salmon Press, which owns 10 other weeklies around the state, which makes their business viable. Buy a press to print one paper and you’ll lose money at the speed of sound. Launching an online paper cuts that cost, but the advertising revenue online is negligible, not enough to pay for quality reporting. Berlin is struggling with the same challenges the rest of journalism is: how do you support quality reporting in the Internet age? Luckily community papers are successful enough to continue surviving. As far as I know, our market isn’t growing yet. I hope my reporting will change that, but in a world where people live more and more online that may not be realistic. There are blogs, yes, but few places online for high quality local news. Residents don’t need to read people’s opinions about what is going on in Berlin—they need the facts about what is going on in Berlin. There is not, at this time, a good model for how to provide that. I’m trying to resurrect a dinosaur here, singlehandedly. Berlin has a shot at rebirth, and it’s much greater than that of newspapers.
And Jon, thank you for the compliment on LPJ as a news destination. I’m glad people come here for news and to share their opinions, but there is 10 times as much news in every Reporter than goes on here and more in depth analysis. My story about shareholders didn’t break here, remember, it broke in the Reporter. We all come here talk about it, and people add value to my work by commenting here, but the fact is this is a side project that doesn’t pay for groceries or pay my rent. The real news is in the paper; this is just the 21st century water cooler.

I wish I had an answer for newspapers. They are so valuable. I love my work, and I think it is integral to maintaining democracy. I’m lucky to have a community and an employer that supports me. What the future holds I don’t know. Will Berlin support two papers when everyone gets high-speed Internet and starts posting their ads on Craigslist? I doubt it. Which paper will fold, or will both? I don’t know. But right now, at a time where Berlin needs quality reporting so residents can make important decisions about their future, the two papers are still there. Hopefully a new model will be created before the old one dies. Otherwise there won’t be anyone out there to find out who is giving money to what causes or who’s numbers about the tax rate are accurate.

So buy a paper. Maybe a subscription for your mom for her birthday? I don’t know, but I hope everyone reading this realizes the value of quality journalism. We need it, and the fact is, it isn’t free.

Fail Harder

Someone told me the secret to success: fail harder.
I work for the Berlin Reporter, which, as I’ve been told, used to cover bake sales from Errol to Shelburne. It wasn’t particularly interested in getting into the complex subjects facing Berlin. I have not followed the same approach.
I read an article in the Columbia Journalism Review about how newspapers need to stop just covering events and start covering issues. Berlin is lucky to have two papers, because they can each cover what they’re good at. I am trying to be proficient at covering issues, and I leave many of the events to someone else.
But issues are tough. PSNH, Laidlaw, Clean Power Development, CDBG grants, the Northern Loop, wood studies, revolving loan funds, wind farms, overlay zones, TIGER grants, federal prisons, state retirement benefit programs, and section eight housing are each distinct areas of expertise. Some might argue they are more than one person can hope to handle. Not true; that person just has to be willing to fail harder. And I do. I work for unattainable goals, and, while I haven’t achieved them, I’m gaining.

People are always telling me how to do my job. Not people at the paper, but random people who want a story about their business or me to look into their issue. They aren’t giving me tips, mind you, but telling me what I should cover and how to do it. It makes me wonder how people perceive the paper—do people look at it as a tool for the community, or as their personal dagger to wield?
I walk through Berlin more than many residents. One city councilor said I knew more about many of the city’s issues than he does, and he’s lived there almost his entire life. That isn’t true, because my understanding of Berlin is on a short time-line, but I have done my best to steep myself in the city’s issues. Sometimes at city council or other meetings I want to point out the obvious point everyone seems to be ignoring, but I can’t. I’m the fly on the wall with a bullhorn to sound once a week.

Fail harder—what a great idea. I’m proud of what it’s done for my reporting. What would Berlin look like if everyone gave it their all, without a thought of the consequences? Where would that take the city? The city makes tentative steps toward rebirth, weighed down by people dreading change. What if the city made a leap in one direction, any direction, with all the naysayers silent?
It is easy to fail harder alone. I can report as hard as I want, with reckless abandon for TRUTH, and no one holds me back. People have complimented me for what fail harder has done for the Reporter; I wonder what it would do for Berlin.

Not Alone, Against a lot

I heard about this while listening to NHPR, and though I haven’t listened to it yet I read the short version. It profiles Pittsburgh, a former steel town that now is trying to find its place in the present. (Incidentally, isn’t it great how sports teams used to represent the industrial? The Steelers, from a steel town; the Pistons, from the nation’s auto capital; the Bulls, from Chicago, the slaughterhouse city. A great history I think people forget.) Berlin could be in the rust belt, only instead of cars or steel it’s trees. But the struggles are the same. What’s next? they are asking in Pittsburgh, Ohio, Michigan and other states. I thought the parallels were apt.

Update: Listen to or read the complete story here. Or just sign up for the podcast; Marketplace never disappoints.

Along the same lines, someone recommended this to me as well, which talks more about the rural brain drain, something northern New Hampshire knows well.
I don’t know how anyone will use this information, but understanding the problem helps when formulating the solution.

On another note, as I drove home from the coast of Maine this evening I caught part of a radio talk show where the host was criticizing the President from a conservative slant that had little regard for the facts. I don’t have a problem with criticizing an administration, Republican or Democrat, but nonsensical ramblings with obvious biases do nothing to further discussion. Neither Keith Olbermann’s observations about the Bush administration nor Bill O’Reilly view of the Obama administration did anything constructive for the American people, and it is a shame millions of people’s minds are swayed by these men every day.
Berlin has to deal with the same kind of bias. When the mill was there residents dismissed the stink as “the smell of money,” I’ve been told. The money is now gone, and the city has to toughen up to the insults. There is no appropriate smug response today. The city can’t let the criticism get it down — heed the part that is accurate and let the rest go. Residents have to take a hard look at every aspect of the city in its current iteration and decide what to shed. That task can’t be taken lightly, and the city should never lose its sense of history and community, but it has to be done. No matter what the city does, there will invariably be detractors who have no investment in the community. Or there will be those people who are still trying to get past their own hangups associated with Berlin. Everywhere I go I hear this negative perspective. I heard it before I started working for the Reporter. Some of the criticism is valid, but much of it isn’t, it’s inane mudslinging, like that of Olbermann and O’Reilly. I have time to engage in discussions with thoughtful people who have misperceptions about the city; I don’t have time to argue every stupid comment someone makes. But someone has to, because there are people out there who take these nuts seriously. Just like Olbermann and O’Reilly, these people have followers who listen. It’s sad that Berlin has such an uphill battle, fighting bias along the way, but that seems to be a tenet of our society today. Get over it, ignore it, and formulate a plan to deal with it. Make the moves forward, regardless of what detractors are saying.

By the way: Both FOXNews and MSNBC are sad examples of news networks. I feel bad for anyone who watches either station. Watch both at the same time and you’re brain will catch on fire.

Obvious Questions

I got the press release about Laidlaw sponsoring Berlin Youth Hockey, and I read the story in today’s daily paper. It’s good to see Laidlaw making some investment in the community; that is the sort of corporate citizen the city should hope for.
The story, however, didn’t go deep enough. Max Makaitis held up the daily at tonight’s community EFSEC committee meeting in response to questions about how Laidlaw will give back, effectively quelling any criticism of the answer they gave the committee on the subject. I don’t think the story soundly defeats all arguments.
I can’t fault anyone at the daily on that account, however, seeing as I put several unsuccessful calls into Laidlaw representatives. They no doubt had the same luck I did getting additional comments, and with deadline fast approaching that story was all they could get in there. The benefit of a daily is it gets the news out FAST; the benefit of a weekly is it gets a little deeper. And that’s what I’ll be doing in a story for next week.

The obvious questions:

Was this a response to quell criticism voiced at the community EFSEC meeting two weeks ago?
Was the timing planned to coincide with the committee meeting?
What sort of commitment is Laidlaw making to Berlin Youth Hockey? Does this last one year, or will it be recurring?
What other sorts of commitments of this type will the company make?
How much does the company expect to give away in these types of arrangements?

It seems only appropriate to use the opportunity Laidlaw created to ask some of the questions members of the committee and the community want answered.
Really, it comes down to the fact that Berlin is lucky to have two papers. Many communities don’t have the resources to give these issues a second look. Their dailies, like Berlin’s, have another story to churn out. Anything more than a cursory look is a luxury.
So don’t sweat it if the daily didn’t ask the questions you wanted. And convince more of your friends to buy the weekly.
GET YOUR BERLIN REPORTER, ONLY 50 CENTS!
We don’t have newspaper boys around Berlin, figured I’d do my part.

Oh, and the other question I will ask: When will Laidlaw be applying for EFSEC evaluation? I figure I keep going to the meetings, I’d like to know when the subject I’m writing about is actually going to happen.

Amazing Journalism

There are few things more powerful than a well-told story. In the past several days I’ve stumbled on several of them. One can be found here, talking about Laotians killed by U.S. cluster bombs. Another is from from NOW, a PBS program that consistently finds stories missed by other outlets. Check out this NOW video about a U.S. Marine prosecutor so disgusted with U.S. treatment of detainees he refused to prosecute a 9/11 financier:

These are stories that would otherwise fall through the cracks. I worry about newspapers’ future, but I believe there will always be the passion and the funding for this type of reporting. We deserve more than the thin veneer of truth governments, companies and individuals pitch as their reasons for actions. Someone has to go dig deeper. A journalist’s responsibility is not to shareholders; it is to their community. These are prime examples of journalists that have not forgotten that.
Want another example? Check out the Listening Post, an Arab perspective that shows biases we are often too close to recognize. Everyone deserves to have their credibility tested, especially the media. They are out there doing just that.

Strained Responses

Marketing, people, I’m talking about marketing!
I know there are people who are passionate about Laidlaw, one way or the other. I agree it is a big issue, and both Berlin papers have done a miserable job reporting on it. I intend to change that. I want to find out more about the company, about its history, about North American Dismantling, and about every aspect of biomass as it affects the citizens of Berlin.
BUT IT IS ONLY ONE ISSUE!
Will bringing Laidlaw to the area solve all Berlin’s problems? No. Will keeping Laidlaw from opening in the area solve all Berlin’s problems? No.
Stop trying to make the story of Berlin the story of Laidlaw. It isn’t; it is only one part. I intend to use this blog to discuss all the issues I see as pertenant. Anyone who would like to join in the discussion is welcome.
Nancy Clark, owner of the Glen Group, a marketing company in North Conway hired to market the North Country, said she doesn’t see the boiler as that big an issue, whether it’s making electricity or rusting away. There are bigger issues to deal with than this. Even if North American Dismantling conspired with Laidlaw to sell them the boiler so PSNH can buy a biomass plant in five years that isn’t the biggest issue in Berlin. It isn’t the thing that will cause the city to fail or allow it to succeed.
Norm Charest said Berlin doesn’t have anything to market. He said the blight has to go before it is worth it. I completely disagree. I think Mr. Charest is afflicted with the same disease everyone else that has stared at the boiler too long suffers from: blindness. Or call it a lack of vision. There are business people moving here. They see opportunity. Burned out buildings will keep some people away — people looking for a sure thing. But that doesn’t mean they will keep everyone away.
People in search of a guaranteed investment will not come to Berlin. The city can’t offer a 10 percent rate of return. But people like Curt Burke are willing to invest millions of dollars in the area. Is he crazy? Or does he see something?
Coupled with Tim Cayer, Katie Paine, and Tom Bendah, that makes a spark. As Berlin knows, it only takes a spark to start a fire.
People are moving to the area. I have been profiling businesses for more than a month of people from here and from away who want to live in Berlin. It can draw. Why does even Mr. Charest refuse to see that?
I worry when the economic development director has lost faith in the city. But in this case I don’t worry for Berlin. The city does not have its plans in order to attract people. It is not doing a good job at marketing. But people are coming. The efforts of the state, which have failed Berlin for years, appear to be one of the few efforts citizens can count on. And yet people come.
Dick Huot, manager of Northern Forest Heritage Park, got a Maine television program to profile St. Kieran Community Center for the Arts, Northern Forest Heritage Park, Gorham Moose Tours and Jericho Mountain State Park. Where are other efforts like this? If the opinion is the area is too blighted and burned out to market, than this would be folly. Guess what? It isn’t folly. It is exactly what the city should be doing, the economic development director should be doing, and every private business in the area should be doing. The chamber of commerce, of which Mr. Huot is a member, should be working as hard as possible to get these images of the city out there.
Take a look at this video. Is it really so hard to imagine these pictures can’t bring people to the area? Is there really so much blight this sort of effort is futile?
I don’t think so, and so I don’t want to see a valid discussion about marketing turned into a debate about biomass.
Want to talk about Laidlaw? Fine, but don’t try to drown out other pertinent discussions with your personal obsession, at least not on this blog. I, as the local newspaper reporter, am working to improve every aspect of Berlin and the surrounding towns. That means I will be covering dozens of issues, and one issue cannot take all the oxygen out of the room, extinguishing all other conversation. So please, open up a little, and care about more in Berlin than just one issue. It does not all come back to Laidlaw. It used to all come back to the mill. Those days are over; help me determine what comes next.

And one more thing: instead of asking, “What is the state going to do to market the area?” when I say, “You can read about it in next week’s Berlin Reporter,” pick up a copy of the paper. Don’t ask me to tell you what I’m reporting on for free. You can buy 40 hours worth of my work for 50 cents — that’s cheap enough.

In Medias Res

So I haven’t posted in the last several days because I spent most the week chasing down stories more complicated than I understand. I spent so much time at conversations with people that didn’t result in stories that I wound up scraping for stories by the end of the week. Whenever I write a story I usually only put 25 percent of what I’ve learned into the paper. The rest is background and information to make sure I can explain it effectively. With what I’m looking at now, that isn’t the case. It is so vast and complex I’m treading water trying to comprehend it all.
Laidlaw and Clean Power — two companies the city has been fighting over since long before I arrived. What does each one represent? How many jobs would each bring, and what kind of jobs would they be? Can the forest sustain both? What sort of neighbors will they make? These are big issue to some people, and so they have to be to me too. The Reporter is the residents’ paper first and my paper second; if an issue is important to them it is important to me. It’s just up to me to explain it.
But this issue is different than explaining the city’s marketing problem, or its blue collar mindset. It’s different than recounting a city council meeting, or explaining the RSA 155B process, or profiling a restaurant. It’s about power purchase agreements, and PUC rules, and least cost options. It’s about Ellicottville, NY, and Portsmouth, and Concord, and Berlin. It’s about power, and it’s about power.
I don’t care about debates; I care about facts. Will a biomass plant look like hell in the center of town? Sure, if your priority is scenery and a tourism economy, but not if your priority is industrial jobs. I’m not looking for scenery, and I’m not looking to cover fluff. That discussion belongs in an article about marketing, not in one about power. The real questions I’ve got involve substance.
I find myself in the middle of a debate I don’t know the history of, expected to get to the root of it to explain to the people who were around for it. This is a blog, and not the place where I actually report; that’s in the paper, where more people actually care what I write and it affects people’s lives. People in Berlin seem to have already made up their minds about this issue, and I’m not sure they’ve done so on evidence. More often it seems they decided on gut feelings. I’m going to find evidence to prove whether those gut feelings are right or whether they’re crap. Love Laidlaw? I want to show you it’s evil. Hate Laidlaw? I want to prove their perfect. My goal is to test every hypothesis from every side, to tap it and poke it until the actual facts fall to the floor screaming, “Here I am! Here I am! Just leave me alone!”
Berlin’s economic future it tenuous, but the sun is rising after years of black. The residents deserve to know how their actions (or inaction) will affect them. I’ve heard that my stories have brought new customers to businesses struggling to survive. They have breathed life into things formerly dormant. The city of Berlin needs something to believe in, I hear. I can’t deliver something to believe in, but they’ll be able to believe the Berlin Reporter.
I’m not sure if this is a threat, or who it goes out to. To a reporter, truth is thicker than water. If you live in Berlin I wouldn’t expect to stop hearing about this issue anytime soon. And expect to hear from some voices you haven’t heard before. This is why I chose this profession. Now I get to see what I can do.

ErikEisele.com

Category: journalism