Devastating critique of Salem Statesman Journal by experienced journalist

Baby boomer guy that I am, I'm old-fashioned when it comes to newspapers. Meaning, I still read them!

My wife and I subscribe to the print versions of both the Salem Statesman Journal and the Portland Oregonian. I also have a digital subscription to the New York Times. 

Given that I like newspapers, and have read one or more almost every day of my life, I've been saddened by how far down the Journalistic Quality mountain our home-town paper, the Gannett-owned Statesman Journal, has slid.

I've written numerous criticisms of the newspaper on this blog. Type "Statesman Journal" into the Google search box in the right sidebar and you'll find my rants (no raves, I'm pretty sure).

Today a newcomer to Salem with 30 years of experience in the newspaper business wrote a critique of the Statesman Journal that made my heart sing with, Oh, yeah, right on sister! So true! Tell it like it is!

Sarah Rohrs left the comment below on a Strange Up Salem post I put up this morning in response to a piece by editorial page editor Dick Hughes, "Life in Newspapers: Constant Change but Same Mission."

She nails what's wrong with the newspaper. Sarah doesn't pull any punches. I like her bluntness.

From Sarah Rohrs:

Here are the comments I e-mailed to the editor and Dick Hughes. I could not post them online as I am no longer a subscriber.

 

Dear Mr. Hughes - I read your column about how great Gannett and the Statesman Journal are in news coverage.

 

I nearly had to laugh out loud when I got to this part - "Our news stories regularly give readers the information they need to engage in local or state issues. Mid-Valley residents, businesspeople and public officials cannot afford to skip the Statesman Journal if they want to know about topics that will affect them."  

Surely, you can't be serious. How can you even entertain that thought with a straight face? 

I am in no one's camp here in Salem. I am a new resident, having moved here in early October. One of the very first things I did was subscribe to the Statesman Journal to get informed about the community. I was looking forward to getting the paper and reading the stories.

 

I am also a 30-year newspaper veteran, a reporter who began in 1985 at a weekly. I worked as a FT-plus reporter (lots of unpaid OT) in mid-size dailies for 25 years and have intimate knowledge of newsrooms and the effects of the downsizing over the last ten years or so. 

I have to tell you that in all my years of working in and reporting at newspapers I have never seen a more mediocre daily newspaper than the Statesman Journal.

 

After less than two months I cancelled my subscription which I found very sad as I wanted very much to support the local newspaper and learn about my new hometown. On a limited income with little savings I could not justify the expense.

 

Far from giving me the news I need to understand and be informed about Salem, the SJ seems to have a deliberate and intentional embargo on hard news stories. In one Sunday paper I did not see ONE local hard news story, not one. How can that be? Each story in this Sunday paper (Nov. 29) consisted of feel-good feature stories, plus numerous holiday stories. Not one local news story.

My subscription ran out this past Friday (Dec. 4). I got the paper for two months. At first I figured "lots of slow news days," a few reporters must be on vacation.

 

Then I began to wonder where are the news stories? Where are the City Council and school board stories? I have seen virtually no school district stories. That is very strange as this is a big family town and I would think parents would want to know what is happening in their town. What are the issues in Salem? I have no idea from reading the Statesman Journal. 

I looked at your online masthead to see how many reporters there are on staff and was surprised to see so many. From what I can tell there are at least 15 reporters and at least six editors. Whoa! That’s a big news staff for a mid-size daily What do you all do all day?

In my last newspaper job in a city about the same size as Salem and with a newspaper about the same size, our newsroom had five full-time reporters on our staff and two editors. We could write circles around your reporters. The City Hall reporter actually covered meetings and did stories on city government. What does your city government reporter do? Does the schools reporter do anything but write feel-good feature stories about how great the schools are in Salem? 

What's happening with the downtown? What kind of developments are in the pipeline? What's the Planning Commission up to? In my two months here in Salem I see a lot of poverty around me. What's the job condition like? You have a “causes” reporter. What are the causes in Salem? I would really like to know.

One of the few City Council stories I did see was little more than a city staff report rewrite on new tree regulations. Amazingly, this story (barely more than a brief) was the top of the fold Page One story! I saw that you had to increase the type face size to make this tiny story stretch across the page. I contacted the reporter and asked him why this issue was significant (as I had no idea from his story) and he said, basically, it wasn't significant at all. Just a technicality for staff.

 

Since then I've heard from other news sources that trees are a big deal in Salem. Why didn't this reporter do more work and present a complete report? The least you could have done, as an editor, was to ask the reporter to write a few more paragraphs to make it fit in the space. It was truly embarrassing. 

My biggest question for you two is this - Where is the pride among the reporters and editors? I know first-hand the effects cuts have had on newspapers and editorial staff. But there is no excuse for such weak news stories and overall coverage. I am not in the Statesman Journal newsroom, of course, so I don’t know the conditions.

 

But, truly, I am mystified and disappointed at the serious lack of news coverage in your paper. Surely, no pack of editors and an entire newsroom of reporters can be that lazy.

Please don’t delude yourself with thinking that you and your reporters give readers what they need to be informed and make informed choices about their town. That’s embarrassing. Take a hard look at your news coverage and make an honest assessment and at last consider taking steps to improve your news coverage. 

A former subscriber

Sarah Rohrs

Comments

[Ty Davison]

I could not agree more. SJ has bad for a long time, but it's gotten worse. I think it will be gone in 5 years. Maybe less.

[Rich Trotto]

How about this morning? The whole FRONT PAGE was given to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Do they know that happened 74 years ago? We went through the same experience of subscribing to the paper as one of the first things we did when we arrived in Salem over two years ago. Cancelled our subscription because of lack of news coverage and not wanting to give our money to a publication that was actively working against our interests. We have resubscribed again because we were missing even the minimal amount of news we were getting from the paper. I am also a former journalist, three years on a newspaper in a small community in Alaska and another 15 at a TV station and I am constantly appalled at the amount and quality of news that appears in the Statesman Journal. Most of the paper on a given day would pretty much be in the “Lifestyles” section of most local papers. If it wasn’t for this blog and some of the other local blogs like Salem Breakfast on Bikes, we would have no information about the important issues in Salem. This is the freakin’ state capitol for Christ’s sake, it needs a decent newspaper.

[Rich Trotto]

PS the "comment feed' link on this page doesn't not appear to be working.

[Maren wryn]

Hold E. Cow! That criticism was perfect! Don't hold your breath for a reasoned response.

[Brian Hines]

Rich, it doesn't work for me either. I'll try to find a way to get rid of any mention of a "comment feed." Or, get TypePad to fix it.

[Mary Ann Baclawski]

We unsubscibed a few years ago for similar reasons. This, the other blogs mentioned, Facebook groups like Salem Community Vision, No3rdbridge, and the Willamette Weekly are our news sources. It truly is embarrassing when a free weekly does a better job of local news reporting than the city newspaper.

[Richard van Pelt]

In April of 2003, I sent the following to the then publisher, David Risser. Nothing changes:

This is in response to your commentary in the Statesman Journal,
Sunday, April 6, 2003

The Headline: "Newspaper strives to present balanced coverage of war"

The bullet that jumped out: "If we use our barrels of ink on the war,
are we neglecting other areas? We regularly shift attention to
breaking news. Coverage of some subjects may be shelved. But only
temporarily. It's not long before we continue shining a light on
traditional local news." What kind of light? Through a Glass Darkly?;
through rose-colored lenses?; with a dim bulb?

Balanced coverage? Yes, I think that your war coverage has done a good
job. But I'm puzzled by a later comment: "Our news staff strives to
be fair and unbiased. Our newsroom is filled with thinking, caring
people who reflect the community."

I agree that they are, but my sense is that you sure keep them on a
short leash with respect to local news.

In order to get a complete spectrum of local, state, and national news,
I pick up the Eugene Register-Guard and the Sunday NYTimes. I don't
expect either paper to be the Times, but the two local papers should be
comparable.

I did a small comparison of the Statesman Journal (SJ) and the Eugene
Register Guard (RG).

I would appreciate any feedback you and the editorial staff may have
(though that response may be constrained by your corporate overlords).

I used the Sunday, April 6th editions of the two papers for comparison.

PRICE: SJ, $1.50; RG, $1.25.

TOTAL WEIGHT: SJ, 2lb. 13-oz.; RG 2lb. 4-oz.

WEIGHT OF NEWS SECTIONS: SJ, 5 oz.; RG 11-oz. I know this may be an
unusual comparison, but it does indicate the amount of paper, ink, and
staffing that must be needed to have more than twice the news that the
Salem paper has.

The RG provided a 12 page section dedicated to local and state news.
Their editorials are in a separate section.

The RG provided 8 pages of sports, with even a section for letters
(with a 250 word limit). They even do a good job of covering OSU
sports.

The RG has a 12 page Oregon Life Section covering arts, travel, books,
and concerts.

The RG has a solid 8 pages of business news.

And finally, a four page editorial section (with a much greater word
limit for letters).

The RG has more reporters, greater local coverage, and the best sports
section in the state AND a lower price.

If both papers shared a common market, the RG would seemingly win hands
down.

The articles are better written, the schedules are accurate; they still
appear to use proof readers to review news for accuracy of spelling and
grammar. You can read the first two paragraphs and get the gist of the
article, as we were taught in journalism class.

It does take longer to read.

How can the Register Guard provide more news, especially local news, at
a lower price? I'd suggest that you need to give less to Gannett and
increase the number of reporters that you have on the beat. I have no
sense of what is happening in Salem and it is sad to hear the news from
other sources (for example, a gang fight(?) downtown recently that was
not reported). My sense is that the SJ is to local news what
ClearChannel is to local radio - there is no one there when you need
them.

Sincerely,

Richard van Pelt

[Richard van Pelt]

I forgot to include Risser's response:

Richard -

I enjoyed your analysis of the differences between the Statesman Journal and the Register Guard. I don't quite understand your point about turning to the RG or the New York Times for local Salem news, but I found the other comparisons between papers in similar cities to be quite interesting.

As anyone can conclude anything if they limit their measures, I think it would be only fair to make a comparison on several additional factors, including locally produced stories, lively stories that engage real readers, stories about people rather than the actions of institutions, and coverage of state government and state worker issues. In those areas and others, I believe we beat the Eugene paper.

And of course we have room to grow. If you would like to advise me on local stories upon which we should unleash our not-insubstantial forces, I would be very delighted to evaluate them and take off the leashes as appropriate.

I've forwarded your note to our publisher in case she'd like to send less money to Gannett.

Cheers,
David

[Salemander]

Sarah Rohrs makes great points, but she shouldn't expect any reasoned answer from Dick Hughes. He will keep on talking about how he is a great leader because he took some leadership classes, and come up with some completely asinine childish riposte to her concerns and consider that the final word on the matter, then go back to burying his head in the sand.

[Logan]

When I first moved to Salem about 8 years ago I honestly assumed the SJ was free it was so bad. It appeared to be filled with ads and "happy stories" - not unlike most free papers that are there merely an advertising tool for local businesses.

Then one day I was stopped at the entrance to a store and asked if I wanted to subscribe to the local newspaper and I said - "Oh I've been wondering if Salem had one, great!" Then he pulled out the Statesmen Journal and I politely said "That. No thank you".

[HarryVanderpool]

I greatly prefer the Daily Dead Fishwrapping Oregonian over the S.Urinal.
Everyone is free to comment about articles with the Fishwrapper, online. Not so with the Urinal. One must have the social ring through their nose firmly attached to the masses. BAAAA,BAAAAAAAAA.
And here is something to watch for this coming spring when nature awakes:
Notice that every article in the Urinal that has "pollinators" or "bees" in the headline turns into an anti pesticide, anti chemical, anti farming, anti forestry, anti nursery, anti EVERYTHING RANT.
This under the guise of reporting.
If you want to read clear, informative news on pollinator issues, check out the Capitol Press.
(Notice that I am the first to mention a REAL newspaper) Besides, I have a very fond memory of being interviewed by Awesome Anna when she was with Capitol Press Printing back in the day!
:p