She Won an Award and then Quit out of Frustration

Part One of a two-part series on what a reporter’s journey tells us about newsrooms and creating niche audiences

I just got off the phone with a journalist who recently posted on social media about winning a top prize for her enterprise reporting. Today, she turned in her resignation.

Why? After a little digging, she acknowledged growing tired of having to persuade editors about the news value of her stories. She’d recently invested quite a bit of reporting time on a story about poor treatment options in her community for those who suffer from sickle cell anemia. The illness is most common among people of African descent. After submitting the story for edits, the journalist explained that her editor showed little to no interest in the story, allowing it to languish for weeks.

“[The editor] scheduled it to run twice, and each time forgot about it. She didn’t feel the story had any news value,” said the journalist, who prefers to remain anonymous.

You see, this community is home to many African immigrants who have fled political persecution and/or civil war in their home countries. Others have come to the town lured by educational and career opportunities. The immigrants have pooled their money to create safe spaces in which to fellowship, spaces where they can freely share their culture including speaking in their own languages.

Reporting on this issue is bigger than just publishing a story. It could lead to helpful change. She was right.

What this reporter innately understands, apparently better than her editor does, is the importance of niche audiences. And she knows that “niche” can also mean ethnically or racially diverse audiences. She also knows that reporting on this issue is bigger than just publishing a story. It could lead to helpful change. She was right.

The Right Person Read the Story, Creating the Possibility for Legislative Change

There’s an old saying that goes: “News is what happens to or around an editor.” Newsrooms, for journalism’s sake, can no longer afford to work this way and yet, this kind of thinking persists among way too many journalists, including many editors.

The story the reporter wrote about sickle cell anemia was eventually published. An immigrant herself, jumping through hoops eventually paid off. The story caught the attention of lawmakers. One state senator has announced that he wants to address sickle cell anemia disparities in the next legislative session.

As for the story that won the journalist a major award, it focused on how one group of immigrants grew to dominate an entire industry. These are niche audiences, audiences this reporter knows intimately and who have come to know her, and her coverage, intimately as well. This is also a niche audience this reporter’s news organization should get to know intimately, cultivating relationships that will allow them to not only create new revenue-producing products, but will also improve news coverage and enable them to reach audiences they’ve never reached in the past. Rather than dismiss these kinds of stories out of hand due to a perceived lack of news value, why not ask “valuable to whom?” Or more importantly, force editors to rethink their own news values.

Rather than dismiss these kinds of stories out of hand due to a perceived lack of news value, why not ask “valuable to whom?”

While they’re at it, maybe someone in this news organization should figure out how to hold onto journalists who understand the inherent value of niche communities. If newsrooms continue to lose reporters like this, if they don’t learn how to listen and value voices different from their own, then they will never get the audiences they say they need to survive. Because the audiences they are seeking look more and more like this journalist with each passing day.

A lot of newsrooms can learn from this journalist and her decision to leave. In our next post, we will look at cultivating relationships with niche audiences and how to connect specialized content and readership to revenue.

Tracie Powell is a Senior Fellow with Democracy Fund and founder of AllDigitocracy.org.