Role of Regional Editor

Studying Patch over the last month, I've concluded a Regional Editor’s success lies with the Local Editors. Based on my experience with RacinePost, I've learned community news succeeds with consistency over time. If you report news every day, readers and advertisers will find you. But if you miss a beat, audience will disappear quickly. My biggest concern for Patch sites is turnover among the Local Editors. It’s bound to happen, but I believe a Regional Editor’s primary job is to minimize turnover and to build succession plans for when someone does leave. I would work from the belief that building and maintaining a pool of talent is of critical importance to successful, lasting community news sites. Patch's four virtues are good markers for how a regional editor can recruit, support, and encourage Local Editors.

Here’s an outline of how I envision the Regional Editor’s job breaking down:

1. Hiring and managing Local Editors 

a. Identifying, interviewing and selecting candidates
b. Coordinating schedules for vacations, sick days
c. Supporting Local Editors; Constant communication
d. Recruiting freelancers and potential LEs
e. Launch!

2. Day to Day
a. Reviewing sites, editing stories, tracking competition and Patch site performance
b. Following Facebook and Twitter feeds (use of social media)
c. Encourage and motivate LEs (positive, honest feedback)
d. Meet and review short and long-term plans with LEs
e. Review and monitor the region’s budgets

3. Marketing
a. Building the Patch name in communities
b. Guiding LEs to understand ‘goodwill’ marketing
c. Assist with community presence/visibility

4. Implementing Patch plan
a. Consistent communication with VP
b. Study and communicate Patch strategy to LEs
c. Follow trends

5. Guiding content to build audience
a. Facilitating cooperation among Local Editors
b. Mix of stories for a wide audience
c. Efficient use of resources
d. Emphasize photos and videos

Commentary 

I’m a hard news guy at heart, but I rank “content” 5th because we’re hiring 12 Local Editors to work daily at creating content and covering their communities. All five categories are important, but I see the Regional Editor as looking big picture at what is needed to maintain consistency and continuity across all 12 sites. I don’t expect to routinely train Local Editors. We’re hiring and equipping professional journalists to cover their communities. Even a relatively green reporter shouldn’t need extensive training. If they do, I hired the wrong candidate. 

Also, while I primarily investigate, write, and share hard news, I’m not locked into only recruiting hard news reporters. I’m much more interested in a Local Editor who can handle all aspects of the job and who knows how to connect with readers. Local Editors are the “face” of Patch in their community. While I love a reporter who can slice and dice local officials with strong reporting, the Local Editor position is a nuanced job that needs to connect with a wide range of readers. A strong feature writer, entertainment reporter, sports editor, or photojournalist may do just as well as someone with a hard news background.

Patch editors are really a throwback to the time when you had a daily Local Columnist who reported news, told stories, promoted events, and held local government officials accountable. Every community had one of these columnists who served as the face of the local newspaper. (In Racine, it was a man named Tex Reynolds, who remains a local legend.) I see Patch editors as an updated version of this lost position. Journalists from any number of backgrounds could excel in this role. 

Thoughts for Local Editors 
1. For stories, nothing beats going to meetings and events - the smaller and more obscure the better. I developed a strong local government beat in Racine by simply going to meetings that reporters had skipped for years. Organizers were both flattered, and scared, by the prospect of third-party oversight. It led to many great stories and immediately cemented my reputation as a community-minded, hard-nosed journalist interested in all aspects of the community.

2. Event stories are good. Photos and video are better. We cover many local events in Racine as a way to support the community and appeal to readers. What better way to draw them in than by putting their picture in a news story? I’m a huge proponent of large, comprehensive slideshows and reports on events. One mistake I see local newspapers repeatedly make is to get too clever in their stories. They’ll go to an event and “look for a story,” while ignoring the larger picture. Once in Racine the Downtown threw a huge block party that drew 10,000+ people. It was a huge event and the city was very proud of it. The reporter, though, focused the next day’s story on one out-of-town vendor he’d met on the street. He made no mention of the crowds, the amazing success of the event, or what it meant for the city. He was too clever. I learned from that story that just because we get tired of writing some stories, doesn’t mean the public is tired of it. Actually, they expect it from their local news source. There’s still room for stories on vendors and individuals, but you can’t miss the big picture.

3. Restaurants and bars. I’m not sure why, but people love reading and commenting on stories about local establishments. It’s like the enjoy knowing the behind-the-scenes stories of the places they routinely go to for entertainment. I think Patch sites could do well for themselves to highlight local places to eat and drink one a week.

3 1/2. Business. Important for reasons similar to restaurants and bars, with one addition. Business profiles also get people talking about your website and telling other business owners about it. This helps ad managers and marketing efforts.

4. Records requests. Nothing says reporting chops like a records request that develops into a story. They can be easy - village salaries, the administrator’s schedule, teacher dress code - or more challenging - emails from state officials on an issue, financial records - but I’d push all Patch reporters to become familiar with the open records law. It’s an incredible tool that local journalists underutilize, despite bearing incredibly fruitful stories.

5. “Ask Patch.” I think that’s a great column idea that promotes reader interaction and establishes Patch as a community resource. We ran a column at the Racine newspaper called “Glad You Asked,” and it was very popular. When done well, it’s a real reader magnet.

6. Three levels of cops. As a former cops reporter, I learned there were three levels of police stories worked in their own way. First was the down and dirty daily police blotter telling people about the burglaries, car crashes and shootings - all the big stuff we’re used to media covering. But I also had a lot of success in reporting minor crimes as news. For example, I called up someone who’s car had been broken into and it turns out the thieves stole her gradebook. She was an elementary school teacher and had lost all of her class’s records. In another story, I interviewed a teen who had thousands of dollars worth of CDs stolen from her car. They were all in a CD case. It led to a big community discussion about how teens, and really everyone, spends their money. The last category of crime story is the deep investigation. This is taking one crime, usually one of some note, and really digging into it. One really effective question: How did the actors get to this point? I like these stories because they put crime in context. I really don’t like to scare people with crime listings without at least some explanation of underlying causes. That said, the daily blotter and crime news is a big reader draw. They can’t be ignored.

7. Localizing. This local reporter standby is even more important in today’s search-engine/Twitter world. As an experiment, I wrote a story that tied Brad Pitt to Racine (actually, Racine was the name of a model who was making claims about Pitt, but it was enough to hang a silly little story on) and then monitored the traffic. It was by far our most popular story of the week. I’m not at all in favor of shameless SEO tactics, but I really enjoy local reporting efforts to connect a community to the larger world. This is especially important for smaller communities in southeastern Wisconsin that work hard to increase their visibility on the regional, state, national and international stages. If done well, it uncovers great stories and increases website traffic.

8. Columns. Not to be overdone, but a well-written and reported column brings needed life to an audience. I’ve found readers love to interact with a person, instead of an institution. One way to build that intimacy is by sharing personal stories and experiences, especially as they relate to the community. It’s hard to do well, but I’ve found if you approach it with a degree of humility readers are forgiving.

9. Story forms. I really like Q&As, numbered lists, “Notes” packages, and other reader-friendly formats. They also tend to be writer friendly and a way for a reporter to cover a lot of ground quickly. For example, if you go to a village meeting you can focus on a bigger story, then use “notes” to easily report smaller stories. Sometimes a note will tip off a reader who will have some insight to share. Mostly, though, it shows you’re on top of a community’s local news. 

Management
This is a general section meant to show my thinking about how to organize a Patch region. It's just one issue I've been thinking through as a regional editor. It's included here to demonstrate my thinking on a regional scale:

Copy editor vs. Sports Editor vs. Visual Director 
Mark talked about different wants to organize a region. He was debating going with a sports editor for his region vs. a copy editor for the 12 sites. My initial thought is to mix in a third option, which would be a visual director who would work with Local Editors on photos and videos. Here’s my initial thoughts:

Copy Editor – A good copy editor is incredibly important for any news operation. It’s critically important to be accurate and consistent, especially for a new operation. The early days of a site are critically important for establishing reputation. A copy editor can help give a strong first impression.

Sports Editor – I like and follow sports and see their importance on Patch sites. You can reach many, many families and community members through sports coverage. But I would be inclined to recommend LE’s use freelancers and regional cooperation for sports coverage.

Visual Editor – Photos and videos are critical to the social component of a website. Sharing either on Facebook is like the new refrigerator – it’s a chance to show off to family and friends, and promote the news source in the process. A truly talented visual journalist is incredibly important to telling stories and covering a community.

I’m initially inclined toward a copy editor, followed by a Visual Editor and the Sports Editor, but could easily be swayed based on available for candidate. In this floating position I’d like a star performer who can do as much as possible. For example, I know one possible hire who is an exceptional videographer and photographer, who also loves local sports. I know another possible candidate who is a standout copy editor and great news person. Either would be invaluable to all 12 Patch sites in the region.