Dear Sherry,
Thank you for the opportunity to interview for Patch’s south Milwaukee’s Regional Editor position. I know Patch is hiring talented journalists around the country to implement its plans. I’m grateful for the chance to join that group.
I’ve spent the past month researching, writing and thinking about how to bring Patch to southeastern Wisconsin. This document is the result of that work. It’s a collection of notes and writing I’ve done on how I envision the Regional Editor’s job, how I would hire and manage Local Editors, and how I would market the Patch sites to build “goodwill” to attract readers and advertisers. My hope is to demonstrate a working plan to hit the ground running as a Regional Editor. With your OK, I’d start tomorrow.
I see a remarkable opportunity with Patch. Three years ago I left a comfortable job with decent pay and benefits to create a community news start-up. Since that day I’ve worked nonstop building RacinePost.com into a respected and impactful source for local news. Throughout this time I’ve waited for the opportunity to “do it right.” I love RacinePost, but with limited resources it can only grow so far and do so much. Patch is different. It’s set a clear path to re-inventing local news on a grand scale. It’s everything I’ve wanted to do, and then some. It’s something I’d love to be part of. Hopefully, this document shows I’m ready to take and excel at the job.
Sincerely,
I’ve spent the past month researching, writing and thinking about how to bring Patch to southeastern Wisconsin. This document is the result of that work. It’s a collection of notes and writing I’ve done on how I envision the Regional Editor’s job, how I would hire and manage Local Editors, and how I would market the Patch sites to build “goodwill” to attract readers and advertisers. My hope is to demonstrate a working plan to hit the ground running as a Regional Editor. With your OK, I’d start tomorrow.
I see a remarkable opportunity with Patch. Three years ago I left a comfortable job with decent pay and benefits to create a community news start-up. Since that day I’ve worked nonstop building RacinePost.com into a respected and impactful source for local news. Throughout this time I’ve waited for the opportunity to “do it right.” I love RacinePost, but with limited resources it can only grow so far and do so much. Patch is different. It’s set a clear path to re-inventing local news on a grand scale. It’s everything I’ve wanted to do, and then some. It’s something I’d love to be part of. Hopefully, this document shows I’m ready to take and excel at the job.
Sincerely,
Dustin Block
II. REGIONAL STRATEGY
Southeastern Wisconsin is ripe for Patch's entry. Several communities in the south Milwaukee region have little or no regular news coverage at a time when they are attempting to establish themselves as standalone communities. Daily news coverage will bring wanted attention and identity to growing villages like Mount Pleasant, Caledonia, and Pleasant Prairie, and needed competition to news coverage in Oak Creek, Franklin, and Brookfield. Many of these communities rarely see a reporter at their government meetings, and community members and business leaders rarely get media attention. Patch sites will fill the needed watchdog role for local governments while also bringing deserved attention to communities left behind by deep cuts in media coverage. In short, Patch's timing could not be better.
A. Competition
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and CommunityNOW
Journal Communications has gutted its community news operation over the last five years, while also making drastic cuts to its metro staff. The result is a huge opening for Patch in coverage in the Milwaukee suburbs. There's a wealth of local talent available to fill Local Editor and freelance positions, especially at the salaries and benefits Patch is paying. I have little doubt Patch can steal away CommunityNOW's best employees and quickly establish the Patch sites as the dominant source for local news in the Milwaukee suburbs.
Journal Times/Kenosha News/Waukesha News
I lump together these three metro dailies because they're remarkably similar. Staffs are underpaid, overworked, and constantly asked "to do more with less." Meanwhile, their coverage has fallen off dramatically over the last three years ago. Patch will have no problem competing with these dailies and raising the quality of news reporting in the Patch communities.
News Market
Southeastern Wisconsin is surprisingly newsy. It's a good mix of urban and suburban issues with a heavy focus on development and rapid change in most of the Patch communities. Traditional urban centers are losing their grasp as the region's driving force, and news stories are following this influence away from cities. It's also worth noting that southeastern Wisconsin is the driving economic force in Wisconsin is increasingly connecting with the Chicagoland area. I read somewhere the Milwaukee-Chicago corridor is one of the most populated in the world. Positioned along the Great Lakes, one of the largest sources of freshwater in the world, it's clear long-term Southeastern Wisconsin will be a major source of economic growth.
B. Key Issues
Southeastern Wisconsin is a very newsy area. Along with the traditional urban centers, explosive growth in the suburbs is resulting in a number critical issues surrounding growth and development, schools, the environment, transportation, taxes, and many more. Regionally, I have my eye on three issues I'd love to see the Patch editors worth together to cover:
1. Landfills and garbage. This is a big deal in SE Wisconsin because the landfills are filling up and it's costing communities a lot of money to ship garbage to new landfills. There's a big effort to increase recycling and change people's habits, but what happens when the landfills are full?
2. The Root River. This river through the heart of SE Wisconsin touches at least five of the Patch communities in the southern Milwaukee region. Each community has their own issue with the river, including flooding, pollution, development, and stopping development. Another big story worth tackling across multiple sites.
3. Schools. There's a discrepancy between school spending throughout the region. It's a critical issue worth a closer look. What schools are doing well? What's working? I'd love to start a series on good ideas in Patch communities. Education would be a good place to start.
B. Key Issues
Southeastern Wisconsin is a very newsy area. Along with the traditional urban centers, explosive growth in the suburbs is resulting in a number critical issues surrounding growth and development, schools, the environment, transportation, taxes, and many more. Regionally, I have my eye on three issues I'd love to see the Patch editors worth together to cover:
1. Landfills and garbage. This is a big deal in SE Wisconsin because the landfills are filling up and it's costing communities a lot of money to ship garbage to new landfills. There's a big effort to increase recycling and change people's habits, but what happens when the landfills are full?
2. The Root River. This river through the heart of SE Wisconsin touches at least five of the Patch communities in the southern Milwaukee region. Each community has their own issue with the river, including flooding, pollution, development, and stopping development. Another big story worth tackling across multiple sites.
3. Schools. There's a discrepancy between school spending throughout the region. It's a critical issue worth a closer look. What schools are doing well? What's working? I'd love to start a series on good ideas in Patch communities. Education would be a good place to start.
Ad Market
Based on my experience with RacinePost, an online news startup in Racine, there's a fertile local advertising market for Patch sites. Small businesses and large nonprofits are seeking new ways to reach customers, and larger businesses are disgusted with the drop in quality of the local newspapers and are ready to support an alternative source for news.
Marketing
I'm optimistic Patch will quickly spread through Southeastern Wisconsin simply by having reporters and ad directors on the street, doing their thing. There's a vacuum of coverage in the region waiting to be filled. Mix in community involvement and local marketing efforts (like launch parties) and we'll have no problem reaching a strong local audience a few months after launch. My guess is you'll see more communities requesting Patch sites within three months of region's first site launches.
IV. HIRING
Over the next six months it seems the south Milwaukee Regional Editor’s top priorities are to recruit exceptional Local Editors, help them launch their sites, and build the sites into leading sources of community news.
Thinking ahead to starting as Regional Editor, I’ve put together a list of potential candidates for all 12 Local Editors in the south Milwaukee region. Please know I’ve in no way contacted these people or suggested they apply for Patch jobs. This is an internal document based solely on my research and experience. I have no idea if any of these people are interested in a Local Editor job (including friends), but it’s where I would start if you asked me to fill the positions.
I believe the Regional Editor’s primary job is to recruit, build, and support a consistent, reliable staff of Local Editors. I don’t believe training is a critical aspect to the Regional Editor’s job. Local Editors are professional journalists paid and equipped to cover their assigned community. If a Local Editor requires regular training, particularly journalism training, then I’ve hired the wrong candidate. (That said, everyone will require instruction in some aspect of Patch’s model. Best practices for Twitter, Facebook, video, photos, etc. … all can be communicated. But I don’t see the Regional Editor heavily involved in daily stories or routine coverage.)
Given that hiring philosophy, I’ve compiled a list of 30 potential candidates (Appendix A) I’ve identified as possible Local Editors, freelancers or miscellaneous positions in Patch’s south Milwaukee region. Mixed with applications already submitted to Patch, I’m hoping this is a productive start to quickly filling the 12 Local Editor positions and getting started on launching sites before the end of the year.
V. HIRING STRATEGY
Strategically, I broke down the region by size of the community with the intention of trying to find the strongest journalists for areas to anchor their region. For example, I’d love to find an experienced journalist and editor for Pleasant Prairie or Mount Pleasant who could also help Local Editors in Bristol-Salem and Caledonia. My hope is to divide the region into four senior journalists, four journalists with average experience, and four new journalists, with the senior journalists divided through the region. (In other words, I don’t want four new journalists bunched geographically together and four senior journalists together.)
Here’s the breakdown, with “Three Stars” meaning most experienced and “One Star” meaning least experienced. Of course, this is only for planning purposes. If a talented, veteran journalist lives in a smaller community, we may still want to hire and pay them at the top level, and use a less experienced, and less expensive, candidate in another community. But the skill levels of the different editors should be taken into account when planning out the region.
Three Stars (Targeting a top-flight, experienced journalist with experience running a news operation)
New Berlin
Pleasant Prairie
Brookfield
Franklin
Two Stars (Veteran journalist/reporter)
Greenfield
Caledonia
Mount Pleasant
Oak Creek
One Star (Journalist with 1-3 years experience)
Greendale
Salem-Bristol
Muskego
Pewaukee
VI. MARKETING
Outside of traditional marketing methods, I’ve discovered three keys to marketing community news websites. All three are designed to build “goodwill” in the community, which attracts readers and advertisers. I spend time on them here because I believe this is important way a Regional Editor can help new Patch sites succeed.
1. ENGAGE – Local Editors have to care- really care - about the community they cover. This doesn’t mean cheerlead or simply promote. It means they have to engage in community life and use their skills to share accurate, fair, insightful and entertaining stories. For a Local Editor, Patch sites aren’t about making money. They’re about being of service to a community. How is this marketing? An engaged Local Editor builds goodwill in the community. If readers know they care, they’ll support the site by reading, advertising and spreading word.
2. WATCHDOG - Early on, Local Editors cover every government meeting possible, no matter how small. This impresses local government officials, who probably haven’t seen a reporter at their meetings in years. It also leads to good stories, develops contacts, and puts officials on notice there’s a new watchdog in town. I’d recommend Patch Local Editors take on this job themselves for at least the first few months before turning it over to freelancers. You want to get your face and name known to local government leaders, who are highly influential in the community. Fair, accurate coverage create immense goodwill among people who can quickly get word out about a community site.
3. YES! – A creative Local Editor should be able to accommodate every person who contacts Patch. Traditional media is in the habit of saying “No” to people. Patch should be about “Yes.” Someone calls with a not-so-great story idea? Use it as a seed for a better story. Someone calls with an event we can’t cover? Post it in the calendar and invite them to send in photos. Anyone who takes the effort to write or call Patch is a valuable reader. Local editors should do all they can to embrace them.
As Regional Editor, I see part of the job is to guide Local Editors in marketing efforts. It’s important they know from Day 1 their engagement with their community will affect their site’s success. It’s a different situation than most reporters, even veterans, will have been in. A regional editor needs to be sensitive to this difference from a traditional reporter/editor job, and guide Local Editors in using Engage, Watchdog, and Yes! to build goodwill, grow audience, and attract advertisers.
Mount Pleasant
Oak Creek
One Star (Journalist with 1-3 years experience)
Greendale
Salem-Bristol
Muskego
Pewaukee
VI. MARKETING
Outside of traditional marketing methods, I’ve discovered three keys to marketing community news websites. All three are designed to build “goodwill” in the community, which attracts readers and advertisers. I spend time on them here because I believe this is important way a Regional Editor can help new Patch sites succeed.
1. ENGAGE – Local Editors have to care- really care - about the community they cover. This doesn’t mean cheerlead or simply promote. It means they have to engage in community life and use their skills to share accurate, fair, insightful and entertaining stories. For a Local Editor, Patch sites aren’t about making money. They’re about being of service to a community. How is this marketing? An engaged Local Editor builds goodwill in the community. If readers know they care, they’ll support the site by reading, advertising and spreading word.
2. WATCHDOG - Early on, Local Editors cover every government meeting possible, no matter how small. This impresses local government officials, who probably haven’t seen a reporter at their meetings in years. It also leads to good stories, develops contacts, and puts officials on notice there’s a new watchdog in town. I’d recommend Patch Local Editors take on this job themselves for at least the first few months before turning it over to freelancers. You want to get your face and name known to local government leaders, who are highly influential in the community. Fair, accurate coverage create immense goodwill among people who can quickly get word out about a community site.
3. YES! – A creative Local Editor should be able to accommodate every person who contacts Patch. Traditional media is in the habit of saying “No” to people. Patch should be about “Yes.” Someone calls with a not-so-great story idea? Use it as a seed for a better story. Someone calls with an event we can’t cover? Post it in the calendar and invite them to send in photos. Anyone who takes the effort to write or call Patch is a valuable reader. Local editors should do all they can to embrace them.
As Regional Editor, I see part of the job is to guide Local Editors in marketing efforts. It’s important they know from Day 1 their engagement with their community will affect their site’s success. It’s a different situation than most reporters, even veterans, will have been in. A regional editor needs to be sensitive to this difference from a traditional reporter/editor job, and guide Local Editors in using Engage, Watchdog, and Yes! to build goodwill, grow audience, and attract advertisers.
No comments:
Post a Comment