Salem Political Snark

Salem's "news desert" makes it tough for the city to pass a tax increase

In reading a Salem Reporter story about the effort of city officials to get voter approval of a property tax increase in order to deal with a $8 million - $13 million gap between revenues and expenses, I was struck by the several mentions of communicating with the public about this problem.

Here's some excerpts from "City Council discusses possible next steps to address budgetary shortfalls" by Joe Siess.

Salem city councilors appear ready to put a measure before voters next May to raise property taxes to avoid sweeping cuts to city programs.

But councilors made clear during a work session on Monday, Aug. 19, that they want a clear signal the community would back such increased taxation before they seek formal approval.

The majority of the council gave City Manager Keith Stahley the green light to plan for polling likely voters on what city services they would be willing to pay for and how much they would be willing to pay.

...Stahley on Monday also suggested auditing city finances and a deeper look at the city’s financial forecast. Those would provide transparency for citizens and ensure they have a firm understanding of the city’s budgetary shortfalls, he said.  

...Stahley told Salem Reporter after the meeting his perception is that while councilors support a tax levy going to voters next May, there is also tension about it in the sense that the city hopes to ensure the community both understands the problem and supports a possible solution. 

Councilors agreed engaging the community and adequately communicating the city’s budget situation will be a key element moving forward.

...The city council largely agreed that it will take more time to gain community trust, especially after the payroll tax failure [in November 2023].

....City Councilor Jose Gonzalez said he believes nothing can be done about the budget situation if the council fails to gain public support and understanding. 

So city officials are talking a lot about engaging the public, but aside from a poll of several hundred citizens in a city with about 178,000 people, there wasn't any mention of how those officials are going to communicate with the public.

This isn't easy in Salem. Unlike Portland, Eugene, Medford, and Bend, we don't have any television stations. Our "local" TV news comes from occasional stories on the Portland stations.

Newspaper-wise, our daily paper is the Statesman Journal. I couldn't find any current circulation figures for the Statesman Journal, but it's clear that the readership is way down in recent years. In December 2019 I wrote a blog post, "Statesman Journal print circulation is down 36% in last two years." 

It's interesting that while Eugene and Salem have roughly equal populations, the Eugene Register-Guard had a 2019 print circulation that was almost exactly double that of the Salem Statesman Journal. And the Eugene paper had a much lower decline in circulation, 23.9% for the two years vs. Salem's 35.7%.

I was curious to see where the Statesman Journal ranked among the 200 daily newspapers. I looked through the searchable database and found that 6 newspapers had an equal two year circulation decline of 35.7%; 62 newspapers had a larger circulation decline; and 132 newspapers had a smaller circulation decline.

So the Statesman Journal was in the bottom third, approximately. Meaning, about two-thirds of the 200 newspapers had a smaller two-year print circulation decline than the Statesman Journal.

The 2019 Statesman Journal print circulation was 14,494. It's likely considerably lower now. Many people have a digital subscription, but I'm pretty sure there's no public information about the number of digital subscriptions.

The online-only Salem Reporter does a better job of covering City of Salem news than the Statesman Journal does. Again, there's no public information about how many digital subscriptions the Salem Reporter has.

So it's tough to reach the residents of Salem. It's no exaggeration to say that we live in a "news desert." A journalism school offered this definition:

We define a news desert as: a community, either rural or urban, with limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive news and information that feeds democracy at the grassroots level.

...Many newspapers have become ghosts of their former selves, both in terms of the quality and quantity of their editorial content and the reach of their readership.

That's certainly the case with the Statesman Journal. There's very little local news. There's no editorial page, so no letters to the editor, no opinion pieces. The Salem Reporter also doesn't have an editorial section, though it does a decent job with local news.

Thus city officials face a tough task in communicating with voters about the need for raising more revenue and why a property tax increase is the best way to do this. That would be a difficult job under any circumstances. It's considerably more difficult in a "news desert" city like Salem.

How could a man twice sexually assault women at Minto Brown Park?

Yesterday I got an email from a woman who was understandably upset at learning that David Belluno, who sexually assaulted a woman at Minto Brown Park last Monday afternoon, had sexually assaulted a different woman at Minto Brown Park back in 2018. 

David Belluno

Her message said:

Hi Brian, as I'm sure you've seen, the same criminal let go in 2018 attempted the same crime (attempted kidnapping, rape, assault, etc.) over the weekend in Minto Brown park. I know from your posts that you revere this park as much as I do. I was shocked to see this and I'm sure your blog readers will be as well.

 

I have already emailed the Marion County DA ([email protected]) as I think others should as well. I was hoping you could persuade your readers to do the same. Obviously the DA won't police itself. And please let me know any other avenues you'd recommend for pressuring the right people to finally put this animal away. I'm new to Salem so not as familiar with the "machine" as you are.

 

I definitely sympathize with anyone who is outraged that Belluno was freed in 2019 after being charged with first-degree kidnapping, first-degree sexual abuse, attempted first-degree rape, attempted unlawful sexual penetration, unlawful use of a weapon and fourth-degree assault. 

A December 2019 Salem Reporter story says that those charges were dropped after it was determined by a Marion County Circuit Court judge that Belluno wasn't fit for trial. He was committed to the Oregon State Hospital, but the story describes in detail why the judge eventually determined after a series of psychological assessments that the law required him to be released.

(This issue is so important, I'm hoping the Salem Reporter is OK with me sharing the story as a PDF file so those who aren't subscribers can learn how Belluno came to be freed.)
Download Judge drops charges against man arrested last year for alleged attack in Minto-Brown Island Park

It seems to me that this case points to the difficult balancing act that has to occur when someone with serious mental problems or limitations commits a serious crime. Belluno appeared to be competent enough to realize that he was better off at the State Hospital than in jail, but not competent enough to be tried for his alleged crimes.

Hopefully Belluno's case is an aberration, rather than commonplace. There's certainly grounds for finger-pointing at everyone involved in his 2019 release, but my reading of the Salem Reporter story led me to feel that by and large, his 2019 release was the fault of a hole in our legal and mental health systems, as noted in a Salem Reporter story about the most recent attack.

A psychologist at the time diagnosed Belluno with a mild intellectual disability and determined that he was unable [to] help in his own defense.

Judge Courtland Geyer determined that because Belluno’s mental health was unlikely to improve to the point that he could stand trial, Oregon law required that the charges be dismissed.

Katie Suver, former Marion County deputy district attorney, told Salem Reporter in 2019 that Belluno’s release magnified what she called a “hole in the process.”

Suver said at the time that an expert hired by her office determined that, with the right treatment, Belluno might improve enough to face the charges, but Geyer ruled that he couldn’t mandate such treatment. 

The judge dismissed Belluno’s charges “without prejudice,” meaning they could be refiled.

Currently Belluno is being held in jail without bail and is facing charges for both the 2018 and 2022 attacks.

Help Salem Reporter fight City of Salem secrecy

I hate it when government officials try to hide important facts from the public. I especially hate it when the officials doing the hiding are employees of the City of Salem. You know, the agency whose slogan is "At Your Service."

But for sure not when the folks at City Hall are trying to cover something up. Then their unstated slogan becomes "Good Luck Learning What We Did, Sucker."

That's the position the inquiring journalists at the Salem Reporter are in. For quite a few months they've been trying to learn why Steve Bellshaw, who used to be a deputy police chief, walked away with $53,000 in taxpayer money after being put on administrative leave.

Below is a copy of a column by Les Zaitz, the Salem Reporter editor, that explains how city officials are trying to keep a veil of secrecy over what should be public knowledge. He's seeking $4,000 in donations from the community to pay for what the City of Salem is charging for a public record request.

Yes, that's an outrageous amount for documents that should be provided for free. But I happily donated $100 to the cause, because I've had similar bad experiences trying to get information from city officials. They use very high public record request fees to discourage people from learning what's going on at the City of Salem. 

As Les Zaitz put it in his lead sentence, "The city of Salem is trying to grind us down." I've felt the same way numerous times, Les. Hang in there. Help is coming. Please donate what you can to the Salem Reporter public record fund. A donate link is in the column. Or click here.

 

 

 

 

The city of Salem is trying to grind us down and we need your help to push back.

For months, Salem Reporter has dug into circumstances around the departure of a top city official.

Steve Bellshaw was a deputy police chief who left in February. He had been accused of misconduct serious enough to warrant putting him on administrative leave three months earlier.

The city cut him a deal – allowing Bellshaw to retire, paying him an unearned $53,000 in public funds and pledging to keep quiet about it all.

Since then, Salem Reporter has been seeking the truth about this. The city has tried to keep it all under wraps, blocking access to public records and ignoring legitimate questions.

We haven’t given up. We sought one order seeking disclosure of records but Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson sided with the city. Since then, Salem Reporter did win Clarkson’s order to disclose information about Bellshaw’s administrative leave. And now the city is under direction to produce some records about its terminated investigation of Bellshaw.

This all takes time and it’s a big lift for a small news team.

Now, we encounter a new obstacle.

In the face of continuing questions from Salem Reporter, the city’s strategic initiatives manager provided some answers in a statement. Courtney Knox Busch said there was no allegation of criminal conduct, that finding an investigator had failed, and that the law wouldn’t allow the city to release records.

Salem Reporter asked for documents that backed up these claims. We also invited city officials to talk to us about narrowing the scale while getting relevant documents. No city official took us up on that offer.

Instead, the city said it would cost Salem Reporter an estimated $4,225.90 to get those records. And there is no assurance the city would disclose whatever it found.

‘Negatively impact’ the city

The law allows government to waive fees in the public interest, but city officials say more harm than good comes from providing records at no cost.

 “The time, expense and interference with the business of the city to compile and provide the records is substantial and outweighs the benefit to the public,” the city explained. Taking time to pull together the records would “negatively impact the city staff’s ability to meet the needs of other customers.”

The city broke down the costs, showing it would take about 44 hours of staff time to find the records. The city estimated its IT crew would need seven hours – nearly an entire work day – to find records. It estimated its police staff would need the equivalent of two work days. Even the city recorder’s office would have to put in five hours.

That seems remarkable given that Busch’s statement was all of four paragraphs. If she didn’t have documents readily at hand on which to base her statement, what did she rely on?

A $155 million budget

But the bill, perhaps unintentionally, revealed that far more people in City Hall have been involved in the Bellshaw matter than has been disclosed. The city said people in five departments would need to round up records. Until then, the city has been insisting city records about the Bellshaw matter were all in the hands of city attorneys and privileged.

The burden of the $4,000 on the city needs to be put in context. The city is running on a $155 million general fund budget ­– $5 million more than last year. The city employees who would work on this request already get paid by the city. And the budget is robust enough that the city plans to spend $250,000 on something called “organizational enhancement.”

Why not enhance public trust in City Hall and give up the documents without such a fuss?

Here’s the bottom line.

The city has fought release of records at every step of the way. The city has implied that it is prohibited from releasing records and that’s proven not true. At one time, the city slowed its handling of a request by claiming it didn’t understand what we wanted when we asked for copies of city emails. We’re still waiting for those.

Now, the city is taking a new tactic to keep us out of its business – the public’s business.

City officials want to load us up with fees, probably betting that a small news operation can’t afford the tab and we’ll give up.

The city is only half right.

Not giving up

As a local news outfit, we can’t afford to write a $4,000 check to the city of Salem.

But we’re not giving up. That’s because of you.

In recent weeks, we have heard from many of you that you want more transparency from the city. We don’t engage in these fights because we have little else to do. We pursue the facts because that’s what you count on us to do.

So, now we need your help.

We’re asking you to donate to cover that $4,000 city fee. Nothing would speak louder to the city manager, the city councilors and the new mayor about what the community expects from those at Salem City Hall.

We need you to become a citizen watchdog to help pry open those city files.

Our pledge is that every dollar will be used for public records costs.

To help, you can use our online donation tool – DONATE LINK – to add to our Disclosure Fund. If you want your donation to be anonymous or you have questions, send me a personal note at [email protected]. If you prefer a check, mail: Salem Reporter, 72585 Middle Fork Lane, Bates OR 97817.

Just 40 giving $100 gets us there.

We’ll keep you posted on how the effort is going and whether we’ll hit the goal. I am betting we will. Who wants to be first?

Les Zaitz is editor and CEO of Salem Reporter. Reach him by email at [email protected].

Gov. Brown and Salem Reporter shine in climate bill saga

After being deeply upset with how Democrats and Republicans behaved in the walkout of GOP members of the state Senate over HB 2020, a cap and trade climate bill, it's great to find some bright spots in this saga -- Governor Kate Brown and Aubrey Wieber, a Salem Reporter journalist.

Governor Kate Brown has earned back my admiration after she responded to the first May walkout of Republican senators by agreeing to kill two bills that were opposed by the GOP, being Democratic priorities  (a pro-vaccine bill and a gun control bill).

I thought this bad move would encourage Republicans to test Democratic resolve later in the legislative session. But I figured such would happen in the House, not the Senate, since GOP members of the Senate had agreed not to walk out again for the rest of the session.

They lied.

Pleasingly, it appears that Brown didn't give up anything of importance in the second walkout. After ordering the Oregon State Police to find the Republican senators who had deserted their posts, they came back on their own and played nice, mostly, during a rush to vote on over a hundred backed-up bills last weekend. 

Brown inspired the crowd at a pro-climate bill rally last Tuesday in her brief but passionate remarks, even though Senate President Courtney had declared HB 2020 dead earlier in the day given lackluster support among Senate Democrats. 

So there's a good chance the walkout of Senate Republicans had no effect on the passage of HB 2020, given that at least three Senate Democrats were either strong No's or leaning that way prior to the walkout.

Today Governor Brown made a strong statement in favor of pursuing the carbon pollution reduction goals of HB 2020, either through executive action or reintroduction of the climate bill. Here's the first part of a Salem Reporter story by Aubrey Wieber, "Governor threatens to do by rule what she couldn't by legislation."

Less than 24 hours after the 2019 Legislature closed, Gov. Kate Brown renewed the fight for a cap and trade program, saying Monday she might act with her executive authority to drive ahead with the hotly contested environmental policy.

“Let me be very, very clear,” Brown said. “I am not backing down.”

She spoke on the heels of a major political collapse last week, when Senate Republicans doomed a vote on House Bill 2020. The legislation, setting up a market-based credit system to force polluting industries to reform, had passed the House and was one vote away in the Democratically controlled Senate from becoming state law.

Brown wasn’t taking her most significant legislative loss lightly.

Brown said she wants to see action sooner than later, and is open to calling a special session to again advance the legislation.

“I believe the bill needs some fine-tuning, but I don’t think it needs to be entirely rebuilt,” she said.

Brown said she campaigned on cap and trade, as did many Democratic legislators elected in November. Recent polling shows climate legislation is popular among Oregonians, though more so in urban areas. Her plan was backed by most Oregon voters, she said.

Excellent. Very heartening. Makes me hopeful that Oregon will be a leader in fighting global warming.

It's great that Brown and Democratic leaders in the state legislature, with the notable exception of increasingly useless Senate President Courtney, are standing firm against Republican efforts to declare HB 2020 dead and gone forever, which, clearly, it isn't.

I followed news about the walkout of Republican senators, and what happened after they returned, with rapt attention.

Journalists with the Oregonian, Statesman Journal, and Willamette Week all did very good reporting. But I consider that Aubrey Wieber and his colleagues at the online-only Salem Reporter stood out from the journalistic pack.

Political junkie that I am, Wieber's frequent tweets on Twitter were highly appreciated, especially during the drama in the Senate last Saturday and Sunday. On Twitter I also follow reporters from the newspapers I just mentioned.

Wieber blew them away with his cogent, informative, and grammatically correct tweets. (Yeah, I'm old fashioned. I like complete sentences and accurate spelling in tweets.) I had the feeling that I was looking over the shoulder of a skilled reporter as he observed the machinations in the state Senate, telling his Twitter followers what was going on.

I realize that many people consider Twitter to be an annoying echo chamber of little value. However, it also can be the best means of conveying breaking news, which Wieber masterfully did. As far as I could tell, he was on duty at the legislature for very long hours over the weekend. 

Hopefully Wieber will get a vacation soon, because he deserves one. For not only did he excel on Twitter, his "long form" stories in Salem Reporter were marvelously written as well.

Sunday's Statesman Journal had zero local content on opinion page

Salem's one and only daily newspaper, the Statesman Journal, is falling deeper into a well of mediocrity.

The newest outrage against journalistic excellence was obvious in yesterday's Sunday paper where, for the first time in the 41 years that I've been reading the Statesman Journal, to my recollection, there was precisely zero local content on the opinion pages. 

A post on the Salem Community Vision Facebook page nailed the outrageousness of this:

NO LOCAL OPINION IN THE SUNDAY PAPER
Charles Sprague is turning in his grave today. When he was the editor of the Oregon Statesman he wrote a daily editorial that appeared on the front page of the paper for 25 years. Today the Statesman Journal could not even manage to print one opinion piece by a local author. No staff editorial. No guest opinion. Not even a letter to the editor. Pathetic. The Statesman staff should be ashamed. They've hit a new low.

I too was struck by the absurdity of no local opinions in the first Sunday paper published after the midterm elections. Instead, there were five pieces by national writers, plus four editorial cartoons.

Further, there is no longer an editorial board, just two Statesman Journal staff members who, apparently, are staffing a nonexistent editorial board. (Easy job.)

Hopefully local content on the opinion page will spring back to life before too long. I'm a big fan of opinions, in part because I'm so prone to holding them myself. Along with, of course, almost everybody else in Salem. We all have opinions, and an important role of a newspaper is to provide a forum for them.

I'm not particularly concerned about the lack of a Statesman Journal editorial board.

It was a wise decision for the paper to not make any endorsements in the midterm elections, but rather to publish pieces by rival candidates side by side. Or, singly, if one of the candidates chose not to write a piece. 

There's really no reason now for newspapers to make political endorsements, assuming there ever was. The Internet allows people to have all the information that editorial boards are privy to, and it is more than a little condescending for newspaper employees to consider that they have a special right, or duty, to tell everybody else how to vote.

But I do enjoy reading letters to the editor and opinion pieces about local issues. For example, City Councilor Tom Andersen has made a reasonable proposal that councilors be paid, which would encourage more people to run for the City Council. But Mayor Chuck Bennett hates the idea.

So I'd like to read dueling opinion pieces by Andersen and Bennett on this subject. Along with letters to the editor taking one side or the other.

I'm finding that the new journalistic kid in town, the totally online Salem Reporter, is making it a bit difficult for me to feel close to this Salem news source. I have to remember to visit the web site each day, whereas the Statesman Journal appears at the end of our driveway every morning.

(Well, most mornings.)

Some days there aren't any new Salem Reporter stories. On the plus side, all of the stories are local, or about state government, whereas the Statesman Journal has a lot of USA Today and national content that isn't of much interest to me. I subscribe to the online versions of the Washington Post and New York Times, plus I browse Politico, Google News, and such.

And so far the Salem Reporter doesn't have an opinion section, nor any way for subscribers to comment on stories. Both of these absences are turn-offs for me, though I feel like I'm getting my money's worth from the $100 annual subscription that I signed up for soon after Salem Reporter announced its presence in our town.

UPDATE: Almost forgot to mention that the current Statesman Journal Monday-Sunday home delivery rate is $62/month, which is up from $46/month in June 2017. So that's a 35% increase in a bit less than a year and a half, which is, um, a LOT greater than the overall inflation rate.

My suspicion is that the Statesman Journal's corporate masters at Gannett are trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of subscribers before the paper ceases print publication next year -- and perhaps shuts down altogether. Meanwhile, us subscribers are paying more for crappier content.

I'm liking the Salem Reporter, but have ideas for improvements

Today was the official kick-off for the Salem Reporter, our town's fresh online option for getting local and state news. A few stories had been published earlier, but this was the scheduled opening day.

The web site design is a clone of another paper (Malheur Enterprise) operated by Les Zaitz, who founded Salem Reporter along with businessman Larry Tokarski. 

Salem Reporter looks clean, bright, modern, and easy to read. Given that there won't be lots of stories on the Salem Reporter site, it makes sense to simply list the latest stories on the home page, plus a brief description of each, with the full story just a click away.

My favorite story on Day 1 was the one shown in the image above, "Secretary of State remains mum on health details, says he's feeling better." Reporter Aubrey Wieber did a great job with a sensitive topic -- Dennis Richardson's brain cancer diagnosis, and how it is affecting Richardson's ability to carry out his duties.

I hadn't seen anybody else reporting on this issue.

Not the Oregonian, not the Statesman Journal, nobody, to my knowledge. Congrats to Salem Reporter for having the journalistic fortitude to write about Richardson's medical problem so informatively, and without sensationalizing it.

Excerpts:

But behind the scenes, speculation has begun to swirl through the Capitol Mall about how far along Richardson’s cancer is and how severe are the effects.

Richardson and his office have withheld that information. Richardson’s staff has refused to shed more light on his condition, aside from releasing a few videos where the secretary told the public his health was improving and he was still dedicated to the job.

His staff won’t disclose the type of cancer, the prognosis or what sort of treatment Richardson opted for. Richardson and his staff have repeatedly said they will not answer questions about his health.

It’s a change in philosophy for the public official who has advocated for transparency throughout his career.

...In contrast, the late Sen. John McCain was forthcoming about his tumor, telling the public what sort of cancer he had, what sort of treatment he would undergo and what his prognosis was.

Early on, Zaitz said that Salem Reporter would act as if it were the only paper in town, or words to that effect. I respect that sentiment, but I also hope that Salem Reporter will continue to fill the journalistic void where other publications either fear to tread, or haven't trod.

I say this in part because for now, at least, Salem Reporter isn't going to be able to duplicate what the Statesman Journal is able to offer subscribers. Like, sports news, national news, an opinion section. So for me, at least,the "added value" of Salem Reporter is going to come from stories that I'm not able to read anywhere else.

Regarding opinion, that's one of my favorite sections in a newspaper, right after the front page. Hopefully before too long the Salem Reporter will find a way to introduce some opinionating in this online news source.

Lastly, I wish the Salem Reporter would allow comments on its stories.

I enjoy both reading and writing comments on the Statesman Journal web site, which are linked to Facebook, thereby expanding the reach of comments and assuring that those who comment have a real name associated with what they say.

Comments also allow for readers to easily provide feedback to the reporter who writes a story. Fairly often I'll either point out an apparent error in a story, or something that is missing in a story. Also, I readily admit, I like to share a link to a blog post I've written on a subject in a Statesman Journal story.

Since Salem Reporter is an online news source, there needs to be more opportunity for readers to interact with both reporters and other subscribers. Right now Salem Reporter feels too much like a one-way street, rather than a two-way boulevard. 

Of course, I'm a blogger who is used to comments being left on posts that I write. Often I learn a lot from the entertaining comments,, as do visitors to my blogs.

I report on a talk with a reporter from Salem Reporter

This afternoon I spent an enjoyable hour chatting with Troy Brynelson, one of the Salem Reporter's fresh journalistic faces in this town.

Troy got to the Beanery in downtown Salem before I did, and sent me a helpful email saying he was wearing a green shirt, but because I'd carefully studied the photo above, my keen senior citizen eyes were able to pick him out from the three or so people in the coffeehouse when I arrived. 

Early on, I assessed Troy for possible mental illness after he told me that he has a journalism degree from the University of Oregon, noting that, given the declining fortunes of newspapers, if he'd been born a lot earlier, probably he would have gotten a degree in Buggy Whip Manufacturing shortly after the Model T became popular.

However, after Troy told me about his reporter experience in Roseburg and Vancouver, Washington, I realized that he's been getting paid for his writing, while I've earned precisely zero from fifteen years of blogging, and very little from the three books I've authored.

So if there was a crazy writer sitting in our Beanery booth, clearly it was me.

I came away impressed with Troy, who will be covering local government and businesses for the Salem Reporter, which begins online publication in September. He asked some good questions about goings-on in Salem, including how I'd define "progressive," a word I was throwing around pretty loosely.

Wasn't just about everybody in our town wanting progress? I had to admit that was true.

I also told Troy that in the case of the Third Bridge (or Salem River Crossing), which is one of the hottest ongoing topics facing the City Council, it is the "conservative" Chamber of Commerce that wants a billion dollar bridge to be built across the Willamette, while it is the "progressive" folks in Salem who want to fix up the two current bridges, along with their approaches.

After our talk I realized that I hadn't gotten any indication from Troy what his political leanings are, even though I'd expressed my own quite explicitly. This was a sign that Troy is going to be even-handed in his interviews and reporting, which is exactly what I'd expect from someone with his education and experience.

It's going to be interesting to see what sort of voice, or style, emerges in Salem Reporter stories.

I talked some about the challenges of print journalism, since by the time the Statesman Journal arrives at the end of our driveway every morning, I'm familiar with every important national story in the newspaper, and many of the state and local stories, because I'm an avid reader of online news.

(I subscribe to the online New York Times and Washington Post, plus the Oregonian. And several times a day I peruse Politico, Google News, and various state/national commentators via my Twitter feed.)

My advice to Troy was that the Salem Reporter emulate TIME magazine, which I still enjoy even though it comes out only once a week. I've continued to subscribe to TIME because it does a great job of news analysis, providing context and background information to factual stories that I've read about elsewhere.

For example, recently I was shocked to find that after reading an analytical TIME piece about Trump pulling out of the Iran nuclear agreement, I was largely persuaded that this could turn out to be a positive decision. The shock, of  course, was realizing that Trump might have done something right.

Which is a reflection of the fact that we live in polarizing times.

Political junkies like me are going to inspect the first Salem Reporter stories with rapt attention, looking for clues about whether Larry Tokarski's funding of this online news source means that it will share Tokarski's conservative political views.

I'm betting that it won't, for several reasons.

First, co-founder Les Zaitz has impressive journalistic credentials, having been a two-time Pulitzer finalist and an investigative reporter with the Oregonian. Second, it wouldn't make business sense for the Salem Reporter to have a conservative slant given that Salem is a liberal-leaning city. 

The best reason why I expect Salem Reporter will be a success came before I sat down to talk with Troy.

After ordering a nonfat 16-ounce vanilla latte, I gave the Beanery barista a five-dollar bill and got 75 cents in change. Without any thought, I put the three quarters in the tip jar.

My one-year subscription to the Salem Reporter is costing me $100. That's 27 cents a day.

So what went in a coffeehouse tip jar was three days worth of local online news. I have no idea how often the three Salem Reporter reporters will be able to write a fairly in-depth story. Let's say, one every three days, though it could take less time.

If I'm able to read on average one good online Salem Reporter story a day, paying 27 cents for that is a no-brainer for me. And it also should be for anyone else in Salem who cares about what is happening in this town. 

Plus, Troy told me that local businesses are being asked to sponsor "bulk" subscriptions to the Salem Reporter, which will make the news source available to low-income people who otherwise wouldn't be able to pay for a subscription. In other words, these businesses would essentially be Salem Reporter sponsors.

I think this is a good idea, even though ideally the Salem Reporter would be self-sufficient via individual subscriptions so it has a revenue stream that isn't dependent on a few large contributors. Five thousand annual subscriptions would bring in $500,000 a year, and ten thousand would bring in $1 million a year.

Either amount seems sufficient for an online news source, but I readily admit that I'm clueless about what the Salem Reporter budget should be.

I just hope this new entry to Salem's journalism scene survives, along with the Statesman Journal, Salem Weekly, and Salem Business Journal, because more is better when it comes to local news choices. 

First meeting of Salem Reporter was with business leaders. Bad optics.

I was pleased to be one of the first to fork out $100 for a year's subscription to the Salem Reporter, a new online news source headed up by Les Zaitz that will start publication in September.

Right after I subscribed, I emailed Zaitz and the three reporters he's hired, telling them how disappointed I've been that the Statesman Journal (Salem's daily newspaper, owned by Gannett) hasn't run stories that challenge the Powers That Be in this town.

I’ll end by observing that in recent years I’ve been frustrated by the failure of the Statesman Journal to do genuine investigative reporting in this town. Quite a few times I’ve contacted a Statesman Journal reporter about an investigative story idea, sometimes after I’ve already done a good share of the investigating on my own.

 

I’d be told by the reporter, “This sounds interesting. I’ll talk to my editor.” And that would be the end of it.

 

If a story cast a business leader, or City officials, in a bad light, it wouldn’t be written. Salem Weekly would do its best to get the word out, but a bi-weekly publication with minimal online presence is hampered in doing good investigative reporting, especially given the lack of reporting resources Salem Weekly has.

 

So I’m looking forward to Salem Reporter doing a better job of keeping citizens informed of what the Powers That Be in this town are up to.

 

I’m glad that, according to the Poynter story, you aren’t expecting much from advertising revenue. I’ve heard Statesman Journal management talk about how news, opinion, and advertising are all separate, and I wish this was true, but my experience is that it isn’t for this Gannett paper.

 

Well, this morning I got an email from Salem Reporter that talked about their first meeting with people in this town. Below is the accompanying photo and a description of that meeting. My commentary follows.

Larry Tokarski, founder of Salem Reporter, invited veterans to the front of Thursday's session to lead the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Good morning..........

Response to the news of the launch of Salem Reporter has been so heartening to our team. We have had encouragement from all quarters. We have had people sign up for our free newsletter. We have had people subscribe. The first subscription - from Pat McCormick - came in just 18 minutes after our site went live.

On Thursday, we hosted a morning function for local business leaders to explain what is the Salem Reporter and how they could help give Salem news it's been missing. In the crowd was "Mr. Oregon," Gerry Frank. We had Salem stalwarts such as Dick Withnell, Richard Kreitzberg and Bob Cannon. We had a great contingent from the Salem Chamber of Commerce, led by Nick Williams. We also had long-time friends such as Ron Anderson and Ray and Keeta Lauderdale.

At the very least, this is bad optics.

Many of my fellow liberals are worried that since funding for Salem Reporter has come from Larry Tokarski, a businessman who is a big supporter of conservative causes in Salem, this online newspaper won't be free to report on issues that put Tokarski or the Chamber of Commerce in a bad light.

So it was a curious, but perhaps telling, decision to have the very first Salem Reporter meeting feature (1) Tokarski, and (2) local business and Chamber of Commerce leaders. 

If the Salem Reporter had wanted to set off alarm bells in the minds of progressives, it's difficult to think of a better way to do this. 

Now, I readily admit that this initial meeting doesn't mean the Salem Reporter is going to go soft on the business community in Salem or the Chamber of Commerce. However, I found it somewhat worrisome that the business people were asked "to help give Salem news it's been missing."

Personally, what I feel Salem has been missing the most is aggressive investigative journalism. The Salem Business Journal and Statesman Journal have plenty of business-friendly stories. Salem Weekly does some good reporting, but lacks the resources to dig deep into issues.

Thus I've been hoping, and continue to hope, that the Salem Reporter will fearlessly go where the Statesman Journal fears to tread. For example, there's good reason to consider that urban renewal funds have been used by the City of Salem to further "crony capitalism," something I've written extensively about in regard to the Park Front Building. 

To it's credit, the Salem Business Journal published an opinion piece that I wrote on this subject. But the Statesman Journal, nada. 

Anyway, I'm still optimistic about the Salem Reporter.

I just wish Zaitz and company had chosen to start off with an open house of some sort aimed at the general population of concerned citizens, rather than begin with a get-together of business leaders. There are two additional Salem Reporter meetings planned, but both also are invitation-only. 

For those in government......

We have two more functions scheduled to help introduce people to the Salem Reporter. Next week, we host public officials, elected officials, those who work in government, and volunteers who serve on so many boards and commissions. The hour-long event will be at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 16, in the Board Room at the Salem Convention Center. If you serve in such a capacity and haven't received your invitation yet, no matter! Join us. Just shoot a note to [email protected] to let us know you're coming so we can put on enough coffee.

For those in the nonprofit world.........

The week after that, we're planning a function with the executive leadership and volunteer board members for Salem-area nonprofits. The hour-long event will be at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 23, at the Salem Convention Center. If you serve in such a capacity and want to attend to learn how to work with Salem Reporter to cover the important work of these organizations, drop an email to [email protected].

"Salem Reporter" is a new Tokarski-funded online news site

Here's some interesting news about the news industry in Salem. Read all about it in a Poynter story, "Salem, Oregon is getting a new online news site. 'I'm pretending there's no other media there.'"

And they already have a website!

Leslie Zaitz is the publisher and editor of the Malheur Enterprise in Vale, Oregon. Larry Tokarski is a businessman and real estate developer with strong connections to Salem. 

On Sept. 17, the Salem Reporter will go live with Zaitz as CEO and editor and three full-time reporters who will cover “local government, schools, business, nonprofits and state government,” according to a press release.

Zaitz isn’t revealing the amount of Tokarski’s investment to get the Salem Reporter up and running, but Zaitz expects the for-profit site, which will have a paywall, to be subscriber-funded.

“You have to pay to get the news,” he said.

A monthly subscription will cost $10 and a yearly subscription will cost $100. The Reporter will accept advertising, and Zaitz is looking at founding sponsorships, “but I forecast zero dollars from either one of those.”

...The new reporters — Rachel Alexander, Aubrey Wieber and Troy Brynelson — will move into their new office Aug. 13, and will have a month to get up and running.

In figuring out what the Reporter will cover, Zaitz sat down with a whiteboard and started sketching things out, he said, based on his own experience and judgment. He hasn’t modeled the Reporter after anything, and he isn’t worried about the other media in town, which include the daily Statesman Journal, the Salem Weekly and the Salem Business Journal.

So how will the Reporter be different? Zaitz isn't worrying about that. The Reporter won’t choose what it covers based on holes left by other media outlets, he said.

“I’m pretending there’s no other media there, let’s put it that way,” he said. “Otherwise you handcuff yourself.”

It'll be interesting to see how the Salem Reporter affects the Statesman Journal, Salem Weekly, and the Salem Business Journal. There's a rumor that the Statesman Journal will stop print publication in 2019.
If that happens, the Salem Reporter will have a head start on becoming the online news leader in this town, making it more difficult for the Statesman Journal to hold onto subscribers.

Seemingly Salem Weekly and the Salem Business Journal will be less affected by the Salem Reporter, since both are free publications that don't rely much on subscriptions. 

The price of $100 a year, or $10 a month, for a Salem Reporter subscription strikes me as a pretty good deal.

A new subscriber to the Statesman Journal pays $22 a month after an introductory rate expires, while old subscribers pay an outrageous $59 a month, the last time I wrote about this. 

My main concern about the Salem Reporter is how Larry Tokarski's funding of it might affect news coverage, given Tokarski's conservative leaning.

UPDATE: I just found the Salem Reporter website. It has this statement from Larry Tokarski, which makes me feel much better.

“Les has complete control over the editorial content of Salem Reporter. I won’t participate in or be consulted about story selection, framing or decisions. The independence of Salem Reporter is essential to guarantee its credibility. I trust Les to establish and guard that credibility.” – Larry Tokarski.

Given Zaitz's long experience in journalism, I suspect he wouldn't have taken the job of Salem Reporter CEO/editor without an assurance that he'll have free rein in covering local news. 

Meaning, without a conservative slant. Or any slant. The Poynter story concludes with some encouraging words.

He [Zaitz] is using experience from 45 years of reporting, he said. And from that time he thinks only two things really matter.

“One, content is everything. We have to deliver quality news that serves the local community and not be worried about the clicks, not be worried about having some cat video go viral because it brings people to the site.”

The other: credibility.

Zaitz wants to know, when he retires (again), that he tried to do everything he could to help journalism and society.

“I expect this will work,” he said. “If it doesn’t, at least I tried. I didn’t just sit back and chip my teeth and bemoan bad fortunes.” 

FURTHER UPDATE:  I just forked out $100 for a year's subscription to Salem Reporter because I want this venture to succeed. I also contribute $10 a month to Salem Weekly, and have a Statesman Journal subscription, plus I read the Salem Business Journal every month.

I want more and better reporting of local news here in Salem. The more competition, and also some cooperation, between various news outlets -- and this includes bloggers like me -- is good for our town.

Yeah, it's kind of weird that after I've written critically about Larry Tokarski, and even got a warning letter from his attorney after Salem Weekly published an opinion piece I wrote about his Creekside development, I'm now paying a hundred bucks a year to a company that Tokarski provided start-up money for.

But life is complex, and makes for strange bedfellows.

Larry Tokarski and Les Zaitz, plus their reporters, are doing something good with Salem Reporter. Progressives like me shouldn't recoil from supporting this online news source just because Tokarski is a backer of it.

Let's give it a chance to succeed.