Post-election journalism needs to be something different

I think this is a good instinct when thinking about how media needs to evolve in the aftermath of the election. The instinct to turn all media into national publications hasn't served it well. The current way is not working for many publications and we're seeing media organizations lose subscribers in the aftermath of the election. The readers don't believe this way works anymore either I think. The problem is not so simple, but when we see it then we have to think about solutions. I think this approach is one of the solutions, not the only one, but this is a good direction for some people and publications to take.

Part of the trouble is audience context collapse. I'm talking to a lot of different sorts of people at once, and you're all here for different reasons. It is becoming increasingly difficult to have good-faith conversations with people across different communities at the same time and in public, both online and in the geographic world. This is another way of saying "journalism is becoming impossible" – not because people don't want journalism, but because when audiences self-select and fracture in an environment overwhelmed with misinformation, journalism can't do what it's supposed to do. It can't serve its purpose.

I wrote a little bit about that problem a year ago in this newsletter. I got clearer on it this week, when the nation's voters made it known that they wanted to be led by the guy who has been very up front about wanting people like me rounded up and shot. The business and philanthropy world has failed journalism. Journalism in turn has failed you. And here we are.

[...]

One thing that has become crystal clear to me is that even without robust, functioning local news, my community still needs basic civic information. So here's one thing I'm doing: Setting up a new site for my town that will hold a library of existing resources like maps, local flood analyses, comprehensive planning, local history, resources for local households and families, etc. If I can get enough local interest in it, the site will also host a calendar of local upcoming public meetings, announcements, arts and community events, things of that nature.