Launch a World-Class Newspaper in Every State: Highlights
Channel: New America
Date: 21/06/2014

Earlier this week, New York Times media columnist David Carr suggested that 'Beltway provincialism' was responsible for most news organizations being caught off-guard that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor would suffer an historic primary loss. He noted that two local reporters saw it coming, benefiting from their time away from trendy data-driven analysis and instead walking the beat and asking real people for insight. While he may be right about the groupthink in Washington, we worry about the paucity of policy reporting outside of the DMV. That concern drove one panel at our 10 Big Ideas Conference. New America Fellow Perry Bacon, Jr., hosted a panel for his big idea: Launch a World-Class Newspaper in Every State.  In the soundbite above, Evan Smith, the Editor-in-Chief and CEO of the Texas Tribune and Michelle Ferrier of Ohio University, show how the media industry's decline has had an impact on coverage of local politics and policy, and beyond...