The ever shrinking capital press corps

Bousquet's column: "Ravaged by readership and advertising losses and struggling to turn a profit from their online editions, U.S. newspapers are trimming their staffs. State capital bureaus are not immune. As a consequence, fewer people are around to hold government accountable and make it relevant to taxpayers and voters.

"...Fewer reporters means more reliance on Associated Press stories, which are serviceable but can't possibly be tailored to regional differences. Fewer reporters mean fewer people to monitor lawmakers and encourage them to pay attention to problems back home. ...Two weeks ago, the Times became the last major Florida paper to end daily circulation to Tallahassee. The paper cited the growing costs of trucking the paper north every night to serve a devoted but tiny following of several hundred readers. "

Comments

It won't be much longer until only the Tallahassee Democrat - aka mullet wrapper - will be doing the only "investigative" reporting of state government. We will all be the worse for it.

[Gringo]

Perhaps the writer is putting the cart before the horse here...

Maybe people aren't buying papers because the Capitol reporting feeds them a daily diet of trivia with a Sunday Special of substance thrown in every now and then instead of vice versa. Perhaps the cliche-laden regurgitation of one anothers' stories doesn't fulfill the need for real news. Perhaps some introspection is in store before the reporters and their bosses blame anyone but themselves.

The Democrat is a lot better now that it gets its state news from the entire Gannett team instead of just Cotterell. Jim Ash is a fine reporter and Cotterell has raised his level of reporting as well. The weak link is Paige St. John-- a lost soul who confuses or concocts her facts and whose work should be printed on Charmin.

I agree with Gringo. People (including myself, who has cancelled my Democrat subscription out of disgust with the constant editorializing that goes on in their "factual news articles") aren't happy with the product that Florida papers are putting out. The Herald, the Times, the Post, etc... consistency and balanced reporting are badly lacking. Why buy a paper that is going to do nothing but make me question the education level of the reporter or columnist when I can get online and read the same crap there for free?

Like in any business or industry, the highest quality product for the best price wins out every time. The Democrat is the perfect example of a low-quality product that is suffering because of it. Until readers can buy the Democrat, or the St. Pete Times, or the Miami Herald, or the Palm Beach Post, or the Tampa Bay Tribune and actually read it without getting the sense that there is an agenda present, the papers will continue to suffer, and their online sites will as well.

Besides, by the time you read a paper these days, it's already old news. Maybe it is time the newspaper industry rode off into the sunset. Maybe it's time for a more viable, 21st century alternative for "getting the word out" to take hold.

I agree with Gringo. People (including myself, who has cancelled my Democrat subscription out of disgust with the constant editorializing that goes on in their "factual news articles") aren't happy with the product that Florida papers are putting out. The Herald, the Times, the Post, etc... consistency and balanced reporting are badly lacking. Why buy a paper that is going to do nothing but make me question the education level of the reporter or columnist when I can get online and read the same crap there for free?

Like in any business or industry, the highest quality product for the best price wins out every time. The Democrat is the perfect example of a low-quality product that is suffering because of it. Until readers can buy the Democrat, or the St. Pete Times, or the Miami Herald, or the Palm Beach Post, or the Tampa Bay Tribune and actually read it without getting the sense that there is an agenda present, the papers will continue to suffer, and their online sites will as well.

Besides, by the time you read a paper these days, it's already old news. Maybe it is time the newspaper industry rode off into the sunset. Maybe it's time for a more viable, 21st century alternative for "getting the word out" to take hold.

[cynical idealist]

Wah! Wah! Bosquet's wailing because there's no one left in the press corps for him to lead...

Clearly, since the capitol press corps foisted the gift ban on Florida's legislature, they've been bored looking for another challenge.

Despite Bosquet's assertions that "moneyed interests" still have their grip on the legislature, he and the rest of the media lemmings repeatedly fail to state the obvious: if people, meaning average voters, got involved in the process, there would be no need for lobbyists, nor the media...

IM confused, which one of the press corps held the government accountable in the first place? Certainly not the SPT.

[Tom]

I had no clue that I was supposed to write you Mr Bousquet to hold Congressman Nehr and the rest of the elected officials accountable, no clue at all!

Members of the capital press corp should have to register, should have to disclose their finances, and should be subject to the gift ban. Because, according to their own claims, they play a major role in shaping policy, unvealing (and hiding by not reporting) back door deals, and influencing Floridians view of their government.

It would also be interesting to see what sort of money Shirish Date has been making for his "tell-all" books he's been writing while he was supposedly working for the PBP.

Members of the capital press corp should have to register, should have to disclose their finances, and should be subject to the gift ban. Because, according to their own claims, they play a major role in shaping policy, unvealing (and hiding by not reporting) back door deals, and influencing Floridians view of their government.

It would also be interesting to see what sort of money Shirish Date has been making for his "tell-all" books he's been writing while he was supposedly working for the PBP.

[George]

After 30 years of buying SPTs in Tallahassee I was addicted to reading first class news about local FSU sports, state of Florida (Tallahassee) political news, state government and assorted Fla news and outstanding opinions from a diverse pool of writers.
STPs leaving Tallahassee market leaves me both in the dark and in a "dumbed down" media captive audience of what passes for news in the local mullet wrapper..who cannot afford 1st class news gathering or opinion writers. A sad day.

[cobi]

Several hundred readers??

Much more than that, as us locally suffering muller wrapper readers would scoop the SPTs from boxes and Public newpaper slots by AM or early afternoon at the latest. If you looked for a SPTs after those times you were out of luck especially Sunday mornings!!

Please at least bring us back the Sunday edition...please!!!

"Ha! Ha! Your medium is dying!"

- Nelson Munz

Sad. Floks who can't get to Tallahassee to watch their legislators in action need the SPT, Tampa Trib and the many other newspapers to be their watchdogs.

[Peter]

I just would like an attribution for the assertion that the Florida press corps is one of the strongest in the nation.

It's a sad state of affairs. Unfortunately, it's the lack of investigative or enterprise stories in favor of being led around by the nose of the governor and other powers that be and producing similar stories that has led to this.

poor folks in Tlh end up having to read that very thin Democrat which is weak to say the least

Sad state of affairs

[Ben Watchin]

Good! Won't be long before the Senate and the Governor will have to go back to work. they won't have anybody in town to grandstand to by beating up on the helpless. Insurance Executives don't have a clue how to use the media compared to the blowhards the people elect.
Charlie will actually have to do something instead of pose for the camera with a co-ed or spit out a provocative sound bite. Jeb did a better job of doing the job. He didn't pander to the media...
Good riddence to the Tally Press Corp.

The SPT's should have kept its Citrus county edition that it discontinued about a year or so ago. The SPT's built that big new facility in Hernando county and could have kept Citrus edition going out of Hernando bureau.

I like Steve but that was the biggest self-serving garbage that I've ever read. The media is the self-appointed watchdog of government. They are all about to gotcha mentality and to be honest, there isn't much of that.

A decline in the capitol press corps just means one less flack in Charlie's press office. How much a*s kissing do they do anyways?

Hahahhahaha .... The capital press corp is the watchdog of florida politics? Hardly. Papers are in the business of making money. Who in their right mind would trust a for-profit industry as their "watch dog"???

Bbwwwaaahahhahahhahaaa

Two weeks ago, the Times became the last major Florida paper to end daily circulation to Tallahassee.

Hence, I weep.

For the past half a century, since the days of Donald Meiklejohn, Barbara Frye, Allen Morris and a few other grown ups – the capital press corps has become a savaging school of mindless piranhas in hot pursuit of petty scandal. All it takes is a slight smell of blood in the water and as one they fall upon the wounded victim with orgasms of frenzied feeding. The basic fill in the blank story is always the same. The purpose is to destroy an individual so his or her warm and bloody scalp can be hung in the reporters stall. The process begins with a consensus of the press corps on the potential targets. The targets are divided into good guys and dirty guys. The good guys are the ones who leak information to the reporters and make an effort to flatter their fragile egos. The dirty guys are mostly Republicans, businessmen, and anyone outside of government or politics. What is reported as investigative reporting is generally based upon leaks from those with a political agenda. Much of the material comes from rumors, pilfering, eves dropping, disgruntled employees, genetic troublemakers or just plain political adversaries. The leakers, not the reporters, provide the so called “investigation”. The reporters are merely their shameless tools. In consideration for the leaks, the leakers are protected in the fashion of the Federal Witness Protection Program. So go on with your myths about the quality of the Capital Press Corps. I knew it the reporters had credibility – not as the muck rake that it has become.

6:09 - Those were wonderful days - Allen Morris, Barbara Frye and Hendrix Chandler! I remember, too, when Neil Skene, Paul Tash and later, Lucy Morgan, took no prisoners in Tallahassee. As far as the Tallahassee Democrat goes, Bill Cotterell does his best but the paper gave up reporting on state government or political news some years when Albert Oetjen left for New York City.

Ever since Shirish Date got fired the world is a better place for reporters and politicians alike....
E

Posted by: | February 09, 2008 at 06:09 PM --

'Much of the material comes from rumors, pilfering, eves dropping, disgruntled employees, genetic troublemakers or just plain political adversaries."

Gotta start somewhere.

[Nelson Pointer]

I disagree with the column assertions. It isn't that there are less "reporters" around to hold politicians accountable.. While it's true that there are less newspaper reporters around, it is also true that there are dozens and dozens of bloggers and cyber-writers who have popped up and report happenings in the Capitol. The SPT and other newspapers just failed to keep up with emerging technologies. I lost count how many times a blog has scooped the mainstream press. If anything, I think politicians these days have to be even more careful because they are always just one blog or youtube video away from complete embarrassment..

[Jim Johnson]

Newspaper writing, in general, is awful. That is, it isnt entertaining and it isnt informative. Editors and publishers prefer to think its the economy rather than the quality of their product.

Who needs a capitol press corps now that we have blogs and capitol flunkies who delight in posting their personal observations and perspectives? As with reading anything to obtain information, one can distill enough fact from the rantings on the blogs as one can from reading the clips from papers around the state. In fact, don't bloggers do a capable job without needing to be compensated? Their addiction to reading their own comments and the responses of others is enough to keep them writing. Hasn't the Poynter Institute or something hoity-toity thinktank studied how the Internet is replacing print newspapers?

Get a real job, Bosquet. I saw you up in Thomasville Saturday browsing the sidewalk sales.

[Ronnie]

All media outlets care only about their opinions of the way things should be. Any pressure they bring on our government is to ensure their beliefs are put forward. They could care less about what we think as they know what is best for us.

People are tired of reading skewed reports. With the invention of the Internet we have many outlets to research on our own. We no longer have to, nor do we take what is given to us by the media as fact. The media has no one to blame but themselves for not progressing. I recommend every manager of the media read “Who Moved My Cheese.” This book applies to you.

Nelson Poynter set up the Poynter Foundation as a tax exempt haven to retain the profits of the SP Times to promote the so called profession of journalism. The Poynter Institute is an expensive operation located in the yacht club district of St. Petersburg. Appears to me the the father of the Poynter family is blowing his paycheck at the bar, while his family is going without groceries. Don Baldwin and Nelson Poynter must be spinning in their graves.

[Jim Johnson]

One of my high school classmates is a TIMES editor. About 5 years ago I told my old friend that the paper's writing sux,fails to entertain, and ignores relevant facts when the facts conflict with TIMES positions ( a perfect example is bus service. The TIMES applauds increases in riders but ignores how much each rider costs taxpayers. A fifty cent ride costs ten dollars...on average).

I told my friend blogs will kill traditional print reporting because the number of bloggers have the potential to reveal information the government and papers want concealed.

When was the last time a Capital-based reporter broke a story of major significance? Too often, the members of the press corps write the same stories. These stories usually are based around the Governor, Speaker, President axis.

It's no wonder the home offices think all they need to do is pay their AP membership and take stories from them.

There's a lot of stories happening in Tallahassee. Just dig, dig, dig. Break some and then you'll show your worth to the home office. Continue to run the governor/speaker/president's press releases and AP has got you covered.

If papers could actually produce thematic stories that encourage people to think critically and care about effective public policy, then you just might have established yourself a more meaningful readership.

Diversity of age and gender on the Times editorial board could go a long way. How do you really expect patrician old men - who live comfortably in the wealthiest section of northeast St. Petersburg - to deal with a new medium that rocks the foundation of print and opens the doors to everyone with a keyboard and an opinion?

[Free Press for the People]

Without an investigative press on hand, all new sources become more reliant on the pre-approved sound bytes specially crafted for public consumption by whatever regime has the best media relations.

In addition, with the GOP supporting the market monopolization efforts of the major media owners, there is a top down bias and coercion on the part of management to accelerate this process, and to support news supplied by pro-GOP sources.

When the media outlets depend solely on access to, for example, the White House for their stories, they will stand a better chance of getting access if they have a track record of having in the past regurgitated the official spin.

This is a situation which the Bush administration has employed very effectively to slant public opinion in such a way as to generate favor for policies that no informed voter, in possession of the true facts, would ever support.

The state of Florida is very fortunate to have the St. Petersburg Times, because, as a true independent, they are not involved in media monopolization efforts, and are therefore much more likely to present us with true investigative journalism without a biased slant.

I believe that the SPT is a true community resource which contributes significantly to our freedom of speech (as in this non-partisan blog which they host) and that this is the kind of media which would, if extended throughout our country (as it once was) would contribute significantly to returning our political process to one in which enlightened and knowledgeable voters made well informed decisions.

In recognition of the economics of the newspaper business, and the explosion of the "free press" on the internet, I have maintained my STP subscription even though I too get most of my news online. I will continue to do so as long as the Times continues to chart a course of independence from political influence.

Free Press for the People--

Which member of the SPT Ed Board wrote this sanctimonious and self-serving crap?

My mistake on the Poynter Institute. Surely there's a thinktank somewhere that has objective data on why we have dropped our newspaper subscriptions and love the Internet and the blogs!

| February 09, 2008 at 10:34 PM -- and you are using one of the better Florida-based blogs available.....

3:20....it doesn't take a "study". It is because no one picks and chooses what is printed. How many "letters to the editor" have we all written? Uh huh..and don't you love it that some stuffed shirt in an air-conditioned little cubby hole somewhere determines whether or not your thoughts and ideas matter enough to be printed??? LOVE the internet where all thought is printed!!!

E

| February 10, 2008 at 11:05 AM --

What is truly more important -- the editorials or the news sections?

LOVE the internet where all thought is printed!!!

Posted by: | February 10, 2008 at 05:52 PM ---

And some of those thoughts are worthless too. Little to no reasoning, e.g. _____ for President; ______ sucks; ________ is a commie; ______ is a Nazi.

Posted by: | February 10, 2008 at 10:58 AM ------

Much of the material comes from rumors, pilfering, eves dropping, disgruntled employees, genetic troublemakers or just plain political adversaries.

Gotta start somewhere.

Guess what! Papers ceased being "watchdogs" long ago. There are no longer any true journalists. Don't agree?--just look at the fluff articles on the blog.

[Genuine Appreciation]

2:03 Sour grapes? Maybe someday you and your neocon buddies will be able to use the media to brainwash everyone, but at least in Fla we still have one outlet devoted to real independent journalism. Observe: Bush sucks and so do you!

When the reporters go back to reporting and stop having editors who allow them to double-dip with columns rife with opinion and to jump that fence back and forth all week, then maybe we will take you all in the Corps seriously again. The industry brought this on itself. There are zero BOYS left ON THE Florida BUS. p.s. A better airport would help a lot too. But if it means Mayor Marks getting cozy with somebody nevermind. Gov Crist can you please help there? With the airport I mean. Seriously.

Do you mean to tell me the newspaper business is actually a business? One that has to deal with the economic realities that affects all other businesses?

I do not rejoice when anyone loses a job or when newspaper circulation decreases. It is nice to know, however that editors, reporters and columnists are forced to consider the realities they so easily brush aside when printing their opinions on what other businesses should and should not be doing.

For all their pomposity (is that a word?), the newspaper is still a far better place to keep up with a fraction of what is going on than the TV news operations.

I'll go back to reading newspapers when newspapers go back to reporting and stop preaching.

"Just the facts, ma'am".

I am more than willing to pop a few coins in a machine, like I used to do every day, to read about what the newspaper knows. But I really don't care to read about what the newspaper thinks.

I'll go back to reading newspapers when newspapers go back to reporting and stop preaching.

"Just the facts, ma'am".

I am more than willing to pop a few coins in a machine, like I used to do every day, to read about what the newspaper knows. But I really don't care to read about what the newspaper thinks.

[Nelson Pointer]

The Internet is the great communications equalizer. Historically speaking, it was way too expensive to communicate to the masses. As a result, that was typically left up to books, magazines and newspapers. But, with the Internet and blogs going rampant, the playing field has evened out. Now, anyone can create a website or blog and get as many hits per day as the Times has subscribers. I don't feel bad for newspapers. It's their only stupidity and greed that they are getting left behind.

[Alan]

Darwin gobbles up another slow to adapt industry. This is nothing more than one reporter's tantrum about his inevitable obsolescense. The bottom line is that the emergence of new media has created way more leashes on government than the mainstream media could ever provide. Your readership and ad dollars are dwindling because they are directly related to your relevance. Perhaps you need to do some investigating at Workforce Florida, and get some training for a new career. Your career is on its way to becoming extinct.

So true. Think about the evolution of industry...know any carriage makers manufacturing automobiles???