The emphasis is too often not on journalism that impacts communities but on feeding the beast. The business model dictates that underpaid and under-coached reporters must meet content and page view quotas. While actually getting a scoop is prized in theory, you’ll spend much of your time aggregating content from some other outlet and if you have the misfortune of being on a “breaking/trending” team, you’ll more often write about whatever specials there are at Dunkin’ than anything resembling real journalism. While some Advance Local sites are better than others, the company overall is just as bad as Gannett or the former Gatehouse when it comes to burning out staff, blowing chances at genuine source development and ignoring any questions or calls for change. Many editors don’t edit or coach. They are frequently serving dual or triple roles including as mini publishers — focused on numbers in a way that borders on unethical because it’s more akin to what an advertising team is supposed to do. Very few editors take the time to talk about real engagement with audiences, nor do they properly strategize with reporters about how to produce solid stories that could resonate. Instead they will tell reporters to pick the low hanging fruit to bump up numbers; this means pumping out a relatively meaningless story and treating it as if it were news, instead of using that time to call sources or dig up genuine stories. They often think Parsley and other metrics tools tell the entire story and they will tell themselves and the public that they’re reaching a solid audience with quality work, even when the top stories are aggregated or not original reporting. Every awards season they might win several awards and pat themselves on the back. But they’re often the only game in town; they wouldn’t win half as many awards if countless local newspapers hadn’t folded over the last 20 years. And the reporters who win awards for good work could just as easily be on the chopping block the next week if they don’t hit their ridiculous content view goals. Underpaid. Especially if in a major metro area. Little professional development. Few reporters move up to editing roles. Few reporters stay long enough to build the kind of sources that can lead to the best possible reporting. Many reporters are so burnt out working for Advance that they simply leave journalism for good. But the truth is that they’re not leaving journalism—they’re leaving whatever the heck it was that Advance had them doing.
