Electric Fishwrap

So you have a great idea about how to save the news industry but your editors aren’t listening? Or maybe your editors like the idea but there’s no manpower/money/upper management support?

With the Knight News Challenge there are no excuses. For those not in the know, the Knight Foundation is in its third year of funding innovative ideas in news reporting and delivery. This year the pot is $5 million. There are just three rules:

1. Use or create digital, open-source technology as the code base.
2. Serve the public interest.
3. Benefit one or more specific geographic communities.

Not sure if your idea qualifies? Visit the Knight News Challenge Garage, where prospective applicants can talk about their ideas before they apply. Here are some applicants who have already applied.

My favorite past winner of Knight funds is Spot.us:

“Spot Us” is a project of the nonprofit Center for Media Change that allows an individual or group to take control of news by sharing the cost (crowdfunding) to commission freelance journalists.

Other past winners here.

Hurry, that idea floating in your head has to be on paper by Nov. 1.

Note: I’ve been meaning to blog about this for almost a month. In trying to get my blogging mojo back I’m going to do some quick hits in the next few days.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know everything. Reporters shouldn’t have to know everything, but they should know how to find out the answers. Enter Kent Fisher, education blogger/reporter for the Dallas Morning News. What Fischer didn’t think was a big story became national news after he questioned his blog readers about grade inflation.

Read a breakdown of the whole affair at Beatblogging.org here and here (including an 18-minute audio interview with Fischer here). The Dallas Independent School District called foul, and said the documents were preliminary.

DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander claimed that what Fischer and The Dallas Morning News had published was in fact a draft copy of the new grading policy. FrontBurner blogger Tim Rogers called on the Morning News to print a clarification, and scolded Fischer and the Morning News for making a big deal out of a draft policy.

Just as Fischer’s blog readers helped break this story open, they also helped slap down district spin.

Fischer eventually posted letters to parents explaining the policy and a PowerPoint presentation for principals, all submitted by readers of his blog. The conversation drew in dozens of teachers who had not previously read his blog before.

If you haven’t yet, listen to the audio. Fischer also talks about the difference between blogs (anonymous comments) and print standards (sourced comments), because he had to re-report some of the details from the blog for the dead-tree edition.

This is an inspiring example of how reporters work sources, and a great way to use a blog to pose a question to the experts — in this case the blog readers.

On Tuesday, a man shot and stabbed his way through his neighborhood in the small town of Alger, about 15 minutes from my newspaper’s office. Six are dead, including a Skagit County deputy, and four are wounded. Countless others are deeply affected. Prosecutors accused Isaac Zamora of six counts of first-degree murder and four counts of first-degree assault. In court Friday, Zamora said “I kill for God. I listen to God” (article and audio here).

Skagit County has been swarming with state and national media since the attacks. Our paper, the Skagit Valley Herald, has been packed with stories since the day after the attacks.

Nothing like this has ever happened here. People are in shock. It is times like these when communities need their newspapers most. As gruesome as the details are, people want to know why this happened. People need to be able to process the tragedy.

Yesterday as I walked into a church that held an open prayer service, someone told me that they appreciated the newspaper and what we are doing. Before that, a barista at a coffee shop said the same thing when we were making small talk. People are also visiting our forums to talk about the tragedy and what the community has lost. This is why quality journalism will never die.

Information is part of the grieving process, too.

Since Tuesday, I’ve produced two videos (here and here), helped other reporters uncover hard-to-find sources, shot still photos, ran to court to get essential documents, made copies, written or contributed to three or four stories and helped other reporters produce audio and video. It’s been a wild and heartbreaking week.

Yesterday I wrote my first education story since Tuesday. It felt comfortable to write about something other than the killing spree that drew the nation’s eye to Skagit County.