(Now that the Sotomayor hearings are on lunch break, I wanted to put this back atop the page. It is real, real big news for the day...until Hutchison announces her campaign totals later this afternoon. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
Texas newspaper publishers are talking about sharing their content -- outside the usual Associated Press pick-ups, sources say. The implications for the depth and breadth of state government and political news are huge. And dire.
We may have seen the first evidence of new sharing arrangements this weekend. Emily Ramshaw of the Dallas Morning news ran a story Saturday morning about the notorious private prison company, GEO Group,taking over a private psychiatric hospital in Montgomery County. The company's prisons have a history of sexual abuse, riots and suicides.
Take a look at the Houston Chronicle piece, posted at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Texas officials wary of prison company contract
Copyright 2009 Houston Chonicle
July 11, 2009, 8:00PM
Did you catch that? "Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle."
No credit to the Associated Press, the normal avenue for stories taken from other papers. Maybe this was a copydesk error. However, word is that some editors have begun briefing their staffs on the new sharing arrangements.
Sources say publishers and editors have ratcheted up their efforts to come up with news while cutting staff. Additionally, word that Austin investment guru and innovative thinker and businessman John Thornton will soon begin publishing a Texas online newspaper has these same editors and publishers worried.
By sharing content, they hope to head-off competition from a well-funded, hard-hitting, aggressive, online news source that could do in Texas what Politico or Huffington Post have done nationally.
The distance between Austin and voters is already enormous. Layoffs and shrinking space for news in the troubled newspaper industry have meant a dramatic decline in coverage of state politics and government. Chasing distracted audiences, local television affiliates for the most part gave up on state political news long ago. Fires, wrecks, murders and sex are much more salable.
How many Texans even knew there was a regular session of the Legislature this year? How many know what happened? Damn few.
The fate of the dwindling capitol press is very much in doubt. Keep in mind that these are plum jobs, or were plum jobs. Typically, only the best and most responsible journalists were given a chance at the capitol beat. Lose them -- and we've already lost many great ones -- and Texas suffers.
If newspapers are already agreeing to share content, how long before they further reduce their Austin offices?
It's impossible to overestimate the importance of a large and diverse press corps. Not too many years ago, a major event in Austin would attract eight or more cameras and a dozen or more print reporters. Those multiple perspectives were key to accurate, broad reporting. Competition among journalists kept things lively.
We are in a Dark Age of state political and government news. Maybe it's just a transition period. But state blogs -- and there are many good ones like BOR -- have nowhere near the resources, the reporting experience or the reach of newspapers and local TV affiliates. There are high hopes that Thornton and maybe others will succeed in new era publishing. But it hasn't happened yet.
I don't have much sympathy for the corporatized ownership of newspapers. Their commitment to the public's right and need to know has long played second fiddle to their bottom lines. They've rationalized, downsized, and minimized their coverage of state news for years. Texans are paying the price, and that price could get much steeper in coming months and years.
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