Hear ye, hear ye: Town crier needs material

What things would you do as editor of a Citizens Journalism effort to increase public input?

I would establish ‘beats’, ‘channels’, or compartmentalized sections on the site (just as a newspaper has national, local, sports, entertainment, living sections etc).

All of these sections would have their own Forum Comment fields for reader response/submissions BUT would be moderated. Anonymous comments would be acceptable (you can get great tips when a person knows they are protected) and with moderation you can quickly weed out off-topic comments or possible libel/slander.

Police beat: One of the best read sections of the Amherst Bulletin is the Police Log (they are public documents) so I would make sure to publish that every week. But I would also try to find a cop, spouse, or somebody "into" public safety to write a weekly analysis/report/editorial about crime--even if it is the small town kind.

School/education beat: As you pointed out some towns--like Amherst--spend 75% of their tax money on the schools. A blog in the area that consistently (when schools are in session anyway) beats mine is Catherine Sanderson's "My School Committee Blog" and it gets tons of comments. Since I know she does it for the exposure and not for money (School Committee is an elected but none paid position) it would not be hard to form a strategic alliance with her already successful blog.

Arts beat: These days everybody has a digital camera so I would establish a photo section where budding photographers could upload their work (no Porn of course).

Sports section: Every parent loves to see his or her kids names in print--even if only on the web. A knowledgeable coach would be happy to write a weekly column and I would try to get a lot of them covering everything from standard seasonal sports like basketball, baseball, football as well as mixed martial arts, cycling, running, triathlons, and yes, even bowling.

Health beat: With the graying of America combined with older folks embracing the web and the spread of broadband this is a perfect place to attract that older demographic that the national beer, auto, and entertainment companies seem to ignore in their advertising (going after the 18-35 kids.)

Heath clubs, yoga centers, chiropractors, sports medicine rehab centers would be happy to submit material and I would form a strategic alliance with Umass Exercise Science department as well, for articles of a more general interest (not just trying to drum of business) on safe practical exercise targeted at senior citizens or just casual couch potatoes.

Politics—or I should say local politics: As Tip O’Neil so famously stated: “All politics is local.” This one would of course be my favorite. I would enlist citizen journalists to cover all the major meetings of town boards and committees. My theory is if the town can find 5 or 6 people to staff these committees I should be able to find one person with a computer to cover them or even enlist one of the committee members.

Entertainment Beat: This would include all the staples--local bar and music scene, movies, music downloads, links to local radio and TV stations with a section devoted to music or video uploads from readers.

And all that mundane boring stuff that folks need/like to know: bus schedules, school schedules, weather, lottery results, crossword puzzle, horoscopes, free classifieds, etc

Hmmm…now after review it looks like all I’ve done is combine the best qualities of a local daily newspaper with a weekly free publication and put it all on the web where your audience can instantly interact and even move forward a story/issue.

But since all this happens on the web, the “burn rate” for overhead (unlike bricks and mortar media) is pretty close to nothing. And as Facebook has just demonstrated, if you attract enough “eye balls” advertisers will want a targeted piece of that action.

Downtown fright fest

A hundred or more families turned out for Halloween Kids Parade March last night.



Heaven must be missing an angel.

Tragic Catch-22

No matter the sentence imposed by our system of justice on 75- year-old Parvin Niroomand, who drove W-A-Y over the centerline into the opposite lane to impale 33-year-old cyclist Misty Bassi on a bright sunny Memorial Day morning and then fled the scene, nobody wins...absolutely nobody.

(I should point out her excuse that she simply thought she hit a tree, but if you believe that you probably also believe 9/11 was an inside job orchestrated by our government.)

Since the family of Misty Bassi asked the court for leniency on her killer, I'm not going to argue. And, thank God, Ms. Niroomand will never drive again. But I wonder about the killer of 21-year-old Blake Goodman run over the night of September 12 in North Amherst by a hit-and-driver who is still at large.

Yeah, maybe it sends a positive message: Turn yourself in, show remorse and you will be let off easy (especially if you are a female senior citizen).

At the very least, it should remind cyclist (and their immediate family): you're on your own.

The Springfield Republican reports

Waiting to kill

Still sinking in a sand trap

So at Monday night's illustrious Select Board meeting our highly-paid bean-counter bureaucrats presented a how-we-doing budget analysis now that FY2010 is one-quarter completed.

(Naturally ACTV screwed up the live broadcast so us taxpayers have yet to see it, but I grabbed a PDF of the Select Board media package from the town website.)

Municipally owned and operated Cherry Hill Golf Course revenues stand at a pathetic $88,350 compared to $97,675 at this time two years ago. And expenses--you know that other half of the simple but important equation-- were $81,658 compared to $71,178 two years ago.

In other words revenues are down 9% while expenses are up 11.4%. Nice combination if you can afford it.

In the private sector when met with declining revenues we try to cut expenses. Last quarter, while millions of workers were laid off nationwide, about the only segment to show an employment gain was (BIG) government.

Be afraid. Be very afraid!

The Amherst Bulletin reported (but forgets to follow up)

Blockbuster fast forwards to extinction

So after a dozen years dominating the Happy Valley video/DVD rental market the Blockbuster in the Stop and Shop Hadley stripmall is going the way of the Dodo bird. A tad too late for 'Video To Go' the iconic, slightly funky, video store that opened in Amherst many years before Blockbuster and moved from Main Street to the shopping center near Gold's, errrr, The Leading Edge Gym and then to Greenfield and then the graveyard.

Locally owned 'DV Den' and 'Captain Video' will be happy, but with consumers shifting to online downloads, cable video-on-demand or just the mailorder convenience of Netflix, the future of the industry is not in bricks-and-mortar outlets.

Some of you locals may remember only a couple years ago when Hollywood Video opened right around the corner from Blockbuster and only lasted about a year. Kind of an oldstyle Monitor vs. Merrimack engagement, only in this case one sank (Hollywood Video).

Interestingly this paradigm shift on the demand side leaving large (over)supply types like Blockbuster out in the cold parallels what is happening with the media--especially print media--today.

No wonder Netflix is killing Blockbuster.

Becoming a Citizen Journalist in Amherst?

There’s always room for one more; and God knows I could use the help.

First off, establish a blog…and then behold the power. Like many things involving the Internet, they are free. Perhaps the main reason print news industry has become a “dead man walking.”

Writing is of course a basic requirement but not nearly as important now as it was four or five years ago. But with a blog, if you are going to do it correctly (and my mother taught me “If you are going to do something, do it right,”) then you will be writing a lot and as a result your writing will improve. But still, shorter is better.

A computer, preferably a laptop with WiFi, and high-speed Internet access are mandatory. Give your blog a catchy title, easy for folks to remember and for a google search to find. Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are great adjuncts and can feed back into the blog.

Get a free sitemeter that tells you how people find your blog, and hits per day will give you an idea of what stories are of interest, have legs, or fall flat. Post frequently but don’t force it with something Twitter –like about what you had for breakfast this morning.

A digital camera with video is also a must. Try to get one with a high optical zoom, as digital zoom tends to come out blurry. Last year I pushed an older camera to the limit of digital /optical zoom taking a shot from a public road about 100 yards away of an Amherst town official gardening at her new home in the town of South Hadley, and it came out lousy.

But she had a recognizable, errrr, figure so it still proved my point. (She later resigned as Amherst has one of those pesky regulations that you must live in town in order to serve as an elected public official.)

Photo editing skills are not all that important as cameras have simple settings that allow any neophyte to take decent photos. Basic skills with video editing are handy because you will need to snip only the pertinent sound bites. These days Apple imovie or simplemoviex make it for anybody to become a Stephen Spielberg.

Now that you have all the tools, establish your turf. Are you going to specialize by covering only school related issues (and in the community of Amherst that is a paramount issue) or just local government in general (and in Amherst they often dabble in foreign policy)?

For the sake of this discussion let’s assume you are a political blog covering the People’s Republic of Amherst.

Either way continue to read/watch the mainstream media, get out to the local coffee shop, bar or restaurant where the locals hang out and keep your ears open. Attend public meetings, ask hard questions. Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s none of your business because you are not a reporter for the local newspaper. The First Amendment applies to everybody.

Bone up on Massachusetts Open Meeting Law and Public Documents Law. Get to know the Town Clerk. Visit other blogs and post relevant comments under your name or google/blogger name so it can link back to your blog. Visit the cyber versions of local media and post comments there with your blog URL.

But above all, seek the truth. Triple check facts and spelling of names,stick to the AP pyramid style of presenting information (most important fact first) and never let your guard down.

Because with every post, you piss somebody off. If you don’t, then you are not doing your job.

And did I mention there’s no pay?