posted 12/22/09 07:41 AM | updated 12/22/09 07:41 AM
Featured Post! | Views: 1110 | Comments : 12 | News, etc.

Goodbye Forever, For Now

I started this web site about three-and-a-half years ago, and now it may be time to end it, for good.  Maybe.  I’m going to take some of the next four or six months to figure it out, and in that time, I will not be writing news for it.

I’m tired, to be fully honest.  This past semester at Montgomery College—my full-time job as a composition and journalism professor—was a long one.  I had to steal small pieces of time from many other parts of my life to write the HeraldTrib, this semester especially, and it showed in spotty, lackluster coverage, I thought. 

The blog started as a way to get a sabbatical from my teaching job.  The technology was new, and free, and Buckingham was not covered by the local papers, and the local papers were neither easily nor freely delivered to Buckingham, so I started a news site just for us.  I wanted it to be a chance, too, for me to try to tell news in a different way, more creatively.  And in the process, I was preparing my sabbatical application. 

Well, the sabbatical came, and the coverage was pretty good.  I picked up readers, and I think I have a good reputation in the county for even-handed coverage of the news.  The readership has never gotten to what I was hoping for, but the readers I have are some of the most dedicated—taking time out of their busy days to read new posts within minutes and hours.

I’ve been featured in a Washington Post story and on a Knight Foundation web site for citizen journalism.  Working on the HeraldTrib gave me the opportunity to work with the Connection Newspapers out of Fairfax County, and most recently I was a guest on WAMU’s Kojo Naamdi Show. 

But one particular feather in the cap eluded me.

About a year ago one of my sisters asked me what my plans for the web site were.  I told her how I felt like I was on the cusp of one trend in journalism: hyper-local coverage.  Newspapers all over the nation have carved niches out of their communities, given laptops to reporters, and told them to make an office out of their cars, their houses, their local coffee shops and bookstores.  Naples (Florida) Daily is one that has done this more than others, with dozens of reporters covering news with laptops and cell phones.  Just like me.

So I told my sister I did not want to miss whatever business opportunity might be out there.  I wanted to keep my site updated and good enough that I would be ready for whatever might come my way. 

“My business plan,” I said, only half-joking, and I can quote because I told many people this, “is for the Washington Post to buy me out or hire me.”

It was not much of a business plan, but I knew from a conference I attended in 2007 that the Post was thinking of people like me.  They had already created the hyper-local, online Loudoun Extra.  And from what people at that conference said, they were looking elsewhere.  I wanted to be big enough and good enough that they would have to see me when they looked. 

Over a number of months in the fall of 2008 and winter of 2009, I had been thinking that I really should call the Post and tell them that if they were looking, so was I, and could we meet, when last spring, they called me and said, “We’re looking.  Can we meet?”  They talked to everyone in the Arlington journalism community from what I could tell, testing the waters for an online run at hyper-local journalism. 

After three interviews, it looked like my business plan, as far-fetched as it was, actually was going to work.  I thought I would not be heading back to Montgomery College in September. I would be the face (God help the viewers) of the new arlington.washingtonpost.com site.  However, the Post decided to go local in a different way and would not need me, as it turned out. 

I was disappointed to be sure, and going back to Montgomery College in September was tough, but I hold no hard feelings toward the Post (and if you change your minds, feel free to call!). 

So that business plan is no good anymore; I must find a new one.  That’s part of what I plan to do this winter and spring.  I’ll be looking at articulating a new plan, one that I can make clear to myself, my family, my readers and potential investors and advertisers. 

It might be that I cannot balance the three major elements of my life: family, work and the HeraldTrib.  It might be that I think up an idea that I would rather pursue.  It might be that I just enjoy the extra free time so much, nothing could peel me away from the Wii.  Right now, that last option seems most likely, but I always feel this way in December, and by mid-January, once my batteries are recharged, I feel like I can do everything. 

So thank you for reading, but it’s goodbye forever, for now.

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THANK YOU
Steve;
As an Arlingtonian (but not Buckinghamian), I want to thank you for the Trib. I've enjoyed reading it and our family has certainly gained from the information. No news outlet with this kind of local value exists anywhere else; you identified a need and filled it. Who else would cover local Dunkin Donut controversies and what kind of grocery store is needed?
Best wishes, and thank you,
Gary
Comment by GARY SHIFFMAN
8 months ago
( 0 votes )
au revoir Herald Tribblog
Steve,

I have enjoyed reading the Trib almost from its inception. You delivered news pertinent to our community that was available from no other source. I will greatly miss your hyperlocal coverage and the behind the scenes observations you have made over the years.

I trust that at some point you decide to once again crack your knuckles and sit down at the keyboad to deliver the pulsating news coverage this neighborhood needs, to keep it abreast of the cominngs and goings here in Buckingham. It has been a joy reading the Tribblog.


All the best,

Joe Doherty
Comment by Joe Doherty
8 months ago
( 0 votes )
Aw, shoot.
You were doing something really important, Steve. My thanks for that, and my regrets that you need to pull the plug and recharge. I know better than most the curse of this writing thing. I can only afford the time to do it because the kids are grown.

My great thanks.

Vic
Comment by Vic Socotra
8 months ago
( 0 votes )
Burned by the Post - Never even got a chance to vote
Steve, I participate in the Post's market research surveys, and I took great interest in the one about local news, since here in 22204 the news vacuum is massive. There was zero option to have on-the-ground well-trained bloggers delivering news on the latest happenings. They were ostensibly looking for user input, but they never even gave me a chance to vote! Steve, in my view you really created a professional and effective alternative to local newsprint journalism -- easy to access, written to professional standards and in an engaging style. Rebecca
Comment by Rebecca Krafft
8 months ago
( 0 votes )
Goodbye and thank you, Steve
Steve: We in Arlington County government are sorry that you have decided to say goodbye forever for now. You wrote about issues in the community at a time when the Post was virtually absent, and we appreciated your interest and your inquiries. We wish you all the best. -- Mary Curtius, media relations manager
Comment by Mary Curtius
8 months ago
( 0 votes )
Thank you
Thank you for putting your time into the blog for the past 3 years. I have enjoyed the articles and for some Buckingham happenings - the blog was the only source of information. Thank you soooo much! Ilene
Comment by Ilene
8 months ago
( 0 votes )
Sorry to see you go.
Steve, I enjoyed the articles I've had the time to read. As former editor of the Ashton Heights News, I know how much time these can take--they're really a labor of love.
You were the best way to hear about what was going on right outside our borders.
I hope you don't give it all up. If you feel you can just write something briefly once a month--we'll take that!
Comment by Liza
8 months ago
( 0 votes )
Thanks for everything.
Steve,
I have enjoyed your writing for the past 3 years. You provided a service for all of us in Buckingham. You were everywhere letting us know what we needed to know. Thanks for you coverage of the sale of Buckingham Village; of the County Board Meetings that led to the MOU and finally..a new building and renovation of Buckingham Village 3.
I don't live in Buckingham anymore; but I have been able to keep up thanks to the blog. If you just write a little now and then, give some highlights, that will be enough.
Thanks for everything, Steve. Best wishes!
Comment by Pate McCullough
8 months ago
( 0 votes )
Will miss the Trib
As an Arlington Oaks resident, I enjoyed reading the Trib and found it very informative. I appreciate your hard work and will miss your enthusiasm for neighborhood reporting.
Comment by Christopher Donahue
8 months ago
( 0 votes )
Thank You
Thanks so much for spending so much time researching and reporting on issues of concern in our neighborhood. I have no doubt you were of great assistance to our past BCCA President and now our 47th District Delegate, Pat Hope. Pat and all the rest of us need to keep aware of what's going on in our own backyard. Thank you for being our eyes and ears for so many years. All the best to you in 2010!
Comment by Caroline eddins
8 months ago
( 0 votes )
Thank you and Good Luck
It is somtimes said that all good things must come to an end. Surely your local coverage, local home spun and enthusiastic updates, and professional journalism has been greatly apppreciated by me and many -- and will be greatly missed. I only hope the "for now" part of your sign off has more relevance than the "forever" part. Good luck and all that you do and wishing you a great 2010!
Comment by David Giger
8 months ago
( 0 votes )
Thanks
Thanks for the local coverage. This was an awesome resource.

Best wishes for 2010
Comment by Sarah G.
8 months ago
( 0 votes )
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