At North Jutland, we are in the process of a showdown with articles that have been chosen solely based on a geographical location – that is, writing about something, solely because it took place in a certain place in North Jutland.
Postcode journalism, I’ve been quoted as calling it.
We have also looked lovingly and critically at the subject areas we cover, and this has led to us now writing more about topics such as divorces, mental health and parenting.
It has also led to us changing our approach to traditional cultural journalism. Northern Jutland has for a number of years moved away from the traditional coverage of culture, and now we have taken another step in that direction:
We now say clearly and distinctly that culture is not one of North Jutland’s editorial strengths, and that part of the coverage of local cultural events belongs to North Jutland’s local media ligeher.nu and aalborg.nu.
The above has quite naturally given rise to quite a few reactions. Both from you readers and from the institutions, sources and stakeholders in North Jutland that we deal with every day.
I welcome the discussions. They show that we are in a region that goes up in North Jutland and that we have a strong, local media.
At the same time, the reactions show that many people have an idea of what local journalism and a local media is and should be, but these are largely ideas based on the past and on what North Jutland used to be.
As I have explained before in a leadership position, we will have to develop in order to be able to solve the challenges we face.
The status quo is not an option.
It didn’t happen overnight. The development has been underway for years, but it has picked up pace in recent years.
One of these reactions came over the weekend in Nordjyske, where Niels Møller criticizes Nordjyske’s editorial line in a debate post. The criticism is that we have not covered or brought anything from the Family Agriculture Senior Club’s General Assembly in March.
North Jutland “used to” do that, he states.
I have always been a part of and am happy with Danish association life, just as I have huge respect for the voluntary work that thousands of Danes do in associations every year. And I can feel the expectation that we will be present and cover association life closely.
We usually do that.
Association life is important for the region and thus for North Jutland, but we do not support it by using journalistic resources to cover all general meetings in North Jutland.
Partly because it would be an unmanageable and resource-demanding task to be present in all parts of North Jutland association life – and partly because the interest in a given association is greatest among those who are very close to the association, while the relevance may not be as great for others.
Being present is not enough if North Jutland is to succeed in being the indispensable news media of North Jutland again. Journalism must be relevant to more and more North Jutland residents – and we must tell the stories that make a difference.
The ones that can be felt.
Our task is no longer to document and refer from big and small, but to find the stories that capture the people of North Jutland and tell them.
This does not only apply to general meetings in associations, but also to the larger events such as the Dana Cup, Nibe Festival and the Cultural Meeting – all important events that bring the people of North Jutland together, but which we will approach in a more constructive, critical and curious way.
And we will certainly not be present at the events to the same extent as we “usually”.
This means fewer articles from these kinds of events – but hopefully articles with greater impact. Journalism that makes a difference for North Jutland.
Now we are at impact: In the same debate post, Niels Møller says that the explanation for Nordjyske not wanting to bring anything from the general meeting was that there was no click in it. Here there is a need to nuance that answer.
Access to data – which tells us what is being consumed on our digital platforms and how – is a relatively new thing in North Jutland’s long history. We use this insight to learn how to be more precise in our publications when we need to succeed with our strategy.
But it is not – and never will be – the cliques alone that define what North Jutland should be – and what we write about.
It is defined in our strategy, and now it is up to us to prove that we can deliver the stories that the people of North Jutland cannot stop reading. Fortunately, Nordjyske’s excellent journalists are much better at showing this every day on Nordjyske.dk than I will ever be able to describe in an editorial.
When North Jutland is on the move, and we take life with postcode journalism, traditional cultural journalism and event journalism, it is up to us every day to show what is taking its place.
And prove that it is so good and important that it is worth paying for.
2024-08-12 17:41:56
#editorinchief #states #changing #journalism
