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Empire Report is closing its doors.
The online news site, founded in July 2008 to provide an alternative to mainstream media coverage of the North Bay, has run out of momentum, founder Jake Bayless said in a post today.
“The unfortunate demise of Empire Report has come to pass, I’m afraid,” Bayless wrote. “I’ve got bills to pay, a family to raise, and there simply doesn’t seem to be the necessary momentum to sustain Empire Report in a manner consistent with the long term vision. That being the case, I have no alternative but to turn it off.”
The Web site, empirereport.org, featured stories written by its readers.
“Empire Report is challenging the centuries-old notions that news professionals best know which issues should be addressed, when the reports should be published, and how the issues should be described. ‘Empire Report’ does not decide these matters. You do! We like to think that we’re part of a long-time-coming seachange that is converting ‘news consumers’ into ‘news participants,’” Bayless wrote in a January post.
On Twitter today, Bayless expressed confidence that the news report would be reincarnated in some form. He will continue to post on Twitter under the handle @honyocker.
— Ted Appel
The Press Democrat
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Hello everyone,
First off I would like to offer my sincerest appreciation to everyone who has helped EmpireReport.org become what it is today: an amazing (but not-yet perfected) re-imagining of local online news built around community engagement, transparency, and collaboration. At its core, ER was championed by a small group of dedicated individuals who shared a common vision and were able to volunteer their time to bring this vision to life. Beyond this, we had a sizable group of contributors who submitted their writings to the site and responded to public comments that their work sparked. Next, none of this would have been possible without the multitude of readers who visited EmpireReport.org on a daily basis, attended our occasional public discussion forums, corresponded with us via Twitter and Facebook, and shared the site with their friends and their friends’ friends and their friends’ friends’ friends… You get the point: we could not have done it without YOU!
As ER moves through this transitionary phase (and we don’t really know where we’ll end up yet), I am left with a deep sense of gratitude to all those who have been involved, a feeling of glowing pride of what we have accomplished with little-to-no resources, and a lingering question of what we could have done better or different. As you are well aware, investigative journalism (in general) and local news reporting (specifically) are in a very delicate position. Empire Report is just one of thousands of micro-local news startups that are attempting to broaden the vision of “local journalism” and “community news.” We have blazed a path brightly, stumbled occasionally, and learned numerous lessons in our time together.
I believe it was Socrates who said: “The more I learn, the more I learn how little I know.” This sentiment perfectly sums up my Empire Report experience. We bit off some very thorny questions, debated long and hard over details large and small, found resolution to many of the simpler problems, but were left with an incredible number of unanswered issues. We chose to dream big, think hard, and move forward with the best possible plan when appropriate. I’m sure there is a “life lesson” in there somewhere, but for now I’ll leave you with some of the questions we struggled with at ER. They may (or may not) be decisively important if others are to successfully follow our lead and navigate the murky waters before us all.
1) Governance: What is the proper organizational structure and legal formation for a community-focused micro-local news website? For-profit, non-profit, a cooperative, a hybrid model such as a B-Corporation or L3C, or an just an unincorporated bunch of community members? As originally envisioned, Empire Report was pursuing a non-profit model, but there are relative benefits and drawbacks to each form.
The answer may lie in the incredible work done by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism to develop detailed models for new news organization:
http://newsinnovation.com/models/
2) Revenue: Depending upon who one asks, the decline in investigative journalism and local news coverage has been caused by free online services such as Craigslist and Wikipedia, or it may be due to increasingly debt-ridden buyouts and corporate consolidation that has been the hallmark of legacy media for several decades. As with most things, I’m sure the truth is a mixture of these factors, along with a number of other influences. How then does one pay for reporters, editors, technological expertise, and administrative support to embolden and expand local news?
I have done quite a bit of thinking on this and will expand on these thoughts in the weeks and months ahead. Who knows, the idea may be as simple as opening (or partnering with) a newsroom cafe:
http://www.digidave.org/2009/02/journalism-business-idea-the-newsroom-cafe.html
3) Partnerships: One key question that I have struggled with is determining what role ER could/should play in relation to other local news organizations. Does one take a truly independent route? Or does one build bridges with existing efforts? Does it matter if they are corporate-owned entities with headquarters outside of the local region? If ER became a non-profit, does one restrict themselves to only working with other non-profit interests or remain open to all opportunities? What are the best and most equitable ways to share content, readership, and revenue among competing interests? Is there a potential role for a shared “local newswire service” that collects and redistributes content among partners?
If the over-riding goal is to increase community involvement in daily news gathering and analysis, as well as provide more complete coverage than any single entity can on their own, where does Empire Report (or others who come after it) fit with the Press Democrat, North Bay Bohemian, Sonoma County Gazette, Russian River Times, Community Voice, WaccoBB.net, Sonoma West Times & News, Sonoma Valley Sun, La Voz, SRJC Oak Leaf, KRCB, and so on and so on… Not to mention the multitude of personal blogs, individual tweets, high school journalism programs, neighborhood groups, non profit organizations, locally-owned businesses, and community activists.
We were not able to reach out to partners to the degree I had hoped for, and I’m not sure where the correct balance lies, but I am certain that it should be centered on community input and directly address the needs of local residents. One potential model could be a shared “assignment desk” that attempted to gather questions directly from the community, and then match those with the most appropriate news source for further research and reporting:
http://explainthis.org/
4) Moving Toward a Rebooted News Ecosystem: A constant source of inspiration for me has been the work of Jay Rosen and Dave Winer in their podcast series Rebooting The News. They skillfully apply the metaphor of restarting a computer (i.e., “rebooting”) to the world of journalism in search of the correct mix of community involvement, sustainable revenue, and journalistic transparency. I highly recommend that anyone interested in these topics give them a listen and consider their insights carefully:
http://rebootnews.com/
I’ll leave it there for now and am (extremely) hopeful that others will come after us to push things further along then we were able to in two short years. To quote Sir Isaac Newton: “If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” Please come stand on ours’ now and join the community forum to provide input on what else needs to be done and how you can help make it happen.
Come join the discussion at:
http://groups.google.com/group/rebooting-empire-report/topics
Both proudly and humbly
BC Capps
Co-Founder, EmpireReport.org
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Mr. BC Capps
707-237-1259
bc.capps@gmail.com
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