gc
14 October 2003, 05:40 PM
The 2003 Civic Strategies
Urban Journalism Awards :::
http://www.civic-strategies.com/urban_journalism.htm
At Civic Strategies, we spend a lot of time keeping up with cities and regions — reading books and reports, talking with experts around the country and searching the Internet. Oh, and we read newspapers. A lot of newspapers. As part of our research for the Civic Strategies E-Letter, we read newspapers from the 20 largest metro areas, plus others like the Wall Street Journal. And we're systematic in our reading. We read these newspapers seven days a week, 365 days a year, and we've done so since 1999.
When we come across an article that interests us, we clip it — or, if we're reading it online, we print it out. Result: We end up with piles of articles, some of which become items in the E-Letter, but most of which do not. Either way, we sort and file the articles by subject or metro area. (You should see our file cabinets.)
Our criteria for clipping an article or printing it out are:
Does it help us understand this city or region?
Does it point to an emerging urban trend?
Is it so bizarre or funny that Tom Wolfe might work it into one of his novels?
Early in 2003, it occurred to us that these piles of clippings and printouts might serve another purpose: Telling us who was doing the best job reporting on urban life in America. So in addition to clipping and filing articles, we started counting and cataloging them.
What we've learned at this point, three-quarters of the way through the year, surprised us. The newspapers we thought would produce the greatest volume of urban journalism (the New York Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune) haven't. The stories that caught our eye most often came from unexpected places, particularly the Los Angeles Times and Dallas Morning News. (Here's a real surprise — we have clipped more articles so far this year from the Seattle Times and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette than from the New York Times and Boston Globe.)
Skeptics will argue that this is no way to judge journalism — by quantity rather than quality. And, true, our measurements don't tell you how well the articles were written, how smartly they were reported or even how long they were. But we are discriminating readers. If an article is dumb, dull or obvious, we don't clutter our files with it. Every one of these articles was kept because it told us something important about the city in particular or urban life in general.
Best Urban Newspapers (to date)
So, which papers have done the best job of reporting news that caught our eye? Through the end of September 2003, here were the leading newspapers in the race for the Civic Strategies 2003 award for Best Urban Newspaper:
Los Angeles Times 97
Dallas Morning News 82
Washington Post 74
San Francisco Chronicle 62
Seattle Times 58
The numbers have changed since we last totaled the clippings in July, but the rankings haven't. The L.A. Times continues to produce the greatest volume of good urban journalism in the country, followed by the Dallas and Washington newspapers. The greatest surprise in this bunch is the Dallas Morning News, a paper that doesn't get much attention outside of Texas but which turns out an impressive volume of first-rate journalism about its region.
And what about the traditional big-city papers, the ones you identify most closely with urban journalism? Through September, we had clipped 51 articles from the New York Times, 37 from the Boston Globe and only 29 from the Chicago Tribune.
Best Urban Reporters (to date)
But what about the reporters? Who out there is writing the greatest number of enlightening articles about urban America? Here are top 10 reporters whose articles we've clipped, as of Sept. 30:
Colleen McCain Nelson, Dallas Morning News 15
John Williams, Houston Chronicle 13
Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 13
Lucas Wall, Houston Chronicle 12
Victoria Loe Hicks, Dallas Morning News 11
Matea Gold, Los Angeles Times 10
D.L. Bennett, Atlanta Constitution 8
Mike Tobin, Cleveland Plain Dealer 8
Gromer Jeffers Jr., Dallas Morning News 8
Michael Cabanatuan, San Francisco Chronicle 8
The competition is tightening for the best urban journalist. The top three reporters (Nelson, Williams and Fitzpatrick) have held their places since we last updated the numbers in July, but Williams and Fitzpatrick are closing in on Nelson. The big mover was Lucas Wall, who jumped to fourth place from 10th. He has an advantage: He covers transportation issues for the Houston Chronicle and the transit system has an important referendum on the November ballot, which Wall has covered extensively and well. New name on the list: Mike Tobin who covers city hall for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Best Urban Article or Series (to date)
OK, if you don't like our way of measuring journalism (skeptics might call it, "journalism by the pound"), we'll give you a more traditional way of recognizing good writing about cities and regions: the Best Urban Article or Series Award. No surprises here: We're keeping an eye out for the single article or series that told us the most about how a city or region operates.
We have an early favorite: a six-part series called "The Big Squeeze" that ran in the Seattle Times' Sunday magazine, starting in December 2002 and continuing on and off until late June 2003. It is an examination of the forces (principally traffic congestion and land use) that are changing Seattle, why the Seattle area has trouble dealing effectively with these issues, how different people are affected and how other regions (Vancouver and Portland especially) have managed things better than Seattle.
Interested? You can find the series by clicking here.
Other Nominees
We've received other nominations for Best Urban Article or Series, and we liked some of them. Among the best:
A six-part series in the Charlotte Observer called "Boomtown Burdens." Similar theme as the Seattle Times series but focusing on what happens to a metro area when it experiences hyper-growth. You can find the Charlotte Observer series by clicking here.
A roughly 20-part series, "City of Ideas," that ran in the Austin (Tex.) American-Statesman. It's an astonishing piece of work that looks at what has been behind Austin's attraction for highly educated young people. (If you've read Richard Florida's book, The Rise of the Creative Class, you already know many of the answers.) What's particularly impressive is how the newspaper traced the way Austin traded workers with other cities, attracting higher earning ones and exporting lower earning ones. Alas, this series doesn't qualify for our award, since it ran in 2002, but it's so good you should read it anyway. You can find the Austin series by clicking here.
Not impressed? Think you have a better nominee for Best Urban Article or Series of 2003? E-mail us your nominees at info@civic-strategies.com. At the end of the year, we'll make our choices and post them on the Civic Strategies web site.
Urban Journalism Awards :::
http://www.civic-strategies.com/urban_journalism.htm
At Civic Strategies, we spend a lot of time keeping up with cities and regions — reading books and reports, talking with experts around the country and searching the Internet. Oh, and we read newspapers. A lot of newspapers. As part of our research for the Civic Strategies E-Letter, we read newspapers from the 20 largest metro areas, plus others like the Wall Street Journal. And we're systematic in our reading. We read these newspapers seven days a week, 365 days a year, and we've done so since 1999.
When we come across an article that interests us, we clip it — or, if we're reading it online, we print it out. Result: We end up with piles of articles, some of which become items in the E-Letter, but most of which do not. Either way, we sort and file the articles by subject or metro area. (You should see our file cabinets.)
Our criteria for clipping an article or printing it out are:
Does it help us understand this city or region?
Does it point to an emerging urban trend?
Is it so bizarre or funny that Tom Wolfe might work it into one of his novels?
Early in 2003, it occurred to us that these piles of clippings and printouts might serve another purpose: Telling us who was doing the best job reporting on urban life in America. So in addition to clipping and filing articles, we started counting and cataloging them.
What we've learned at this point, three-quarters of the way through the year, surprised us. The newspapers we thought would produce the greatest volume of urban journalism (the New York Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune) haven't. The stories that caught our eye most often came from unexpected places, particularly the Los Angeles Times and Dallas Morning News. (Here's a real surprise — we have clipped more articles so far this year from the Seattle Times and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette than from the New York Times and Boston Globe.)
Skeptics will argue that this is no way to judge journalism — by quantity rather than quality. And, true, our measurements don't tell you how well the articles were written, how smartly they were reported or even how long they were. But we are discriminating readers. If an article is dumb, dull or obvious, we don't clutter our files with it. Every one of these articles was kept because it told us something important about the city in particular or urban life in general.
Best Urban Newspapers (to date)
So, which papers have done the best job of reporting news that caught our eye? Through the end of September 2003, here were the leading newspapers in the race for the Civic Strategies 2003 award for Best Urban Newspaper:
Los Angeles Times 97
Dallas Morning News 82
Washington Post 74
San Francisco Chronicle 62
Seattle Times 58
The numbers have changed since we last totaled the clippings in July, but the rankings haven't. The L.A. Times continues to produce the greatest volume of good urban journalism in the country, followed by the Dallas and Washington newspapers. The greatest surprise in this bunch is the Dallas Morning News, a paper that doesn't get much attention outside of Texas but which turns out an impressive volume of first-rate journalism about its region.
And what about the traditional big-city papers, the ones you identify most closely with urban journalism? Through September, we had clipped 51 articles from the New York Times, 37 from the Boston Globe and only 29 from the Chicago Tribune.
Best Urban Reporters (to date)
But what about the reporters? Who out there is writing the greatest number of enlightening articles about urban America? Here are top 10 reporters whose articles we've clipped, as of Sept. 30:
Colleen McCain Nelson, Dallas Morning News 15
John Williams, Houston Chronicle 13
Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 13
Lucas Wall, Houston Chronicle 12
Victoria Loe Hicks, Dallas Morning News 11
Matea Gold, Los Angeles Times 10
D.L. Bennett, Atlanta Constitution 8
Mike Tobin, Cleveland Plain Dealer 8
Gromer Jeffers Jr., Dallas Morning News 8
Michael Cabanatuan, San Francisco Chronicle 8
The competition is tightening for the best urban journalist. The top three reporters (Nelson, Williams and Fitzpatrick) have held their places since we last updated the numbers in July, but Williams and Fitzpatrick are closing in on Nelson. The big mover was Lucas Wall, who jumped to fourth place from 10th. He has an advantage: He covers transportation issues for the Houston Chronicle and the transit system has an important referendum on the November ballot, which Wall has covered extensively and well. New name on the list: Mike Tobin who covers city hall for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Best Urban Article or Series (to date)
OK, if you don't like our way of measuring journalism (skeptics might call it, "journalism by the pound"), we'll give you a more traditional way of recognizing good writing about cities and regions: the Best Urban Article or Series Award. No surprises here: We're keeping an eye out for the single article or series that told us the most about how a city or region operates.
We have an early favorite: a six-part series called "The Big Squeeze" that ran in the Seattle Times' Sunday magazine, starting in December 2002 and continuing on and off until late June 2003. It is an examination of the forces (principally traffic congestion and land use) that are changing Seattle, why the Seattle area has trouble dealing effectively with these issues, how different people are affected and how other regions (Vancouver and Portland especially) have managed things better than Seattle.
Interested? You can find the series by clicking here.
Other Nominees
We've received other nominations for Best Urban Article or Series, and we liked some of them. Among the best:
A six-part series in the Charlotte Observer called "Boomtown Burdens." Similar theme as the Seattle Times series but focusing on what happens to a metro area when it experiences hyper-growth. You can find the Charlotte Observer series by clicking here.
A roughly 20-part series, "City of Ideas," that ran in the Austin (Tex.) American-Statesman. It's an astonishing piece of work that looks at what has been behind Austin's attraction for highly educated young people. (If you've read Richard Florida's book, The Rise of the Creative Class, you already know many of the answers.) What's particularly impressive is how the newspaper traced the way Austin traded workers with other cities, attracting higher earning ones and exporting lower earning ones. Alas, this series doesn't qualify for our award, since it ran in 2002, but it's so good you should read it anyway. You can find the Austin series by clicking here.
Not impressed? Think you have a better nominee for Best Urban Article or Series of 2003? E-mail us your nominees at info@civic-strategies.com. At the end of the year, we'll make our choices and post them on the Civic Strategies web site.