Our communities – and communities across the nation – have suffered greatly from the erosion of local journalism.
Local news operations serve as our government watchdog. They help us make informed decisions at the ballot box. They tell the stories of the people, the places, the businesses, the nonprofits, the decisions, the indecisions, and the events that define who we are.
And now, it seems, the Newton Tab, Needham Times, Wellesley Townsman and Watertown Tab & Press along with dozens of other weekly news operations, may be taking a final step away from what remained “wicked local” about them.
Parent company Gannett is reportedly “poised to take a major step back from its coverage of Massachusetts communities as it prepares to replace local news in its weekly papers with regional stories," reports media watcher Dan Kennedy.
Kennedy stresses that there’s still unknowns about the plans Gannett -- the largest newspaper chain in the U.S. -- has for its Massachusetts' weeklies.
But in a presentation explaining Gannett's "Re-envisioning Wicked Local" reorg, municipal meeting coverage, local election coverage -- pretty much any local news coverage -- are notably absent.
“... I want to know what’s going on at City Hall, and if my local Gannett weekly isn’t going to tell me, I’m stuck,” Kennedy adds.
And so are the rest of us.
So what do we do?
As many know, I was once editor-in-chief and publisher of 13 of those Gannett (then known as GateHouse) papers, including those serving our four chamber communities.
Over the years I’ve watched the staffs assigned to cover Wellesley, Newton and Needham, whittled down from five full-time journalists per community, to one reporter each. Watertown once had three dedicated FTEs. Now it has none.
This latest turn is heartbreaking. But not surprising.
Given challenging economics and limited staffing, Wicked Local's shift to not-so-local may be the best plan local editors can cobble together.
They leave us in the dark about major decisions, government spending and so many other developments that impact all our lives.
We end up depending on Facebook groups and list serves for local "news" that too often emulates the divisiveness and untruths that has infected our national discourse.
Wellesley and Watertownhave the good fortune of having independently-owned and run online news sites (although they'd both be the first to admit they're under resourced).
Newton and Needham desperately need the same.
Better yet, our communities would be well served if we had nonprofit news sitesthat follow the public broadcasting model -- with funding from local donations, underwriting and grants -- a trend that’s gaining traction across the nation.
Who's ready to launch one?
Wellesley releases Climate Action Plan
After more than a year of meetings, Wellesley released its Climate Action Plan yesterday.
The report aims to be roadmap to lowering Wellesley’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, and for building resilience to climate change impacts. The plan includes recommended actions and metrics for measuring progress on action implementation. You can read a summary here.
And so does Watertown (almost)
Okay, actually Watertown only released a draft of its Climate and Energy Plan yesterday. But the work is well underway.
You can access it here. At that link you will also find a short guided survey to provide feedback. Send direct feedback to Laurel Schwab. Public comment is open through March 11.
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Bottle bill expansion gains support
The Massachusetts Municipal Association and Metropolitan Area Planning Council have both endorsed legislation updating the state's beverage-container deposit law.
The "better bottle bill," filed by Sen. Cindy Creem and Rep. Marjorie Decker would increase the bottle deposit from its current five cents to 10 cents and add more types of beverage containers to the program, putting a deposit on water bottles, vitamin drinks, nips and bottles for other drinks that weren't contemplated when the initial law was adopted in the early 1980s, reports Katie Lannan at State House News.
Baker to unveil small biz grant programs shortly
The Baker administration will announcing two new grant programs soon through Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation directed at helping very small businesses as well one for small business that have not previously received COVID relief.
Unlike programs administered through MGCC, funding is limited this time and will go fast.
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Are workers -- finally -- returning to jobs?
Census data out this week confirmed something virtually every employer already knew.
More people called in sick during the start of 2022 than any other time during the pandemic.
Here's the good news: Almost one million people between the ages of 25 and 54 joined the workforce in January and employers added 467,000 jobs in January, a sign of resilience in the face of the pandemic, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Here's perhaps the best news: The number of people who couldn’t work because they were caring for children out of school or daycare declined by about 278,000 to around 5 million.
And the number of people who weren’t working because they were afraid of catching or spreading the virus fell by about 200,000 to around 3 million.
