Q&A: An extended interview with Jim Heaney, the Buffalo News
Margaret Sullivan and Jim Heaney, The Buffalo News.
The News’s changes in the past year, and its focus on online and blog content especially, seems to be a game-changer. Can you talk about how it has changed things?
I wouldn’t characterize the changes as a “game changer.” We’re progressing, posting breaking news and feature videos, and about a half-dozen reporters and critics have take up blogging in a serious way. But the News, like the local television stations, isn’t producing much full-blown multimedia work that the web lends itself to.
As a journalist, what does it allow you to do?
I’ve found blogging to be transformative on several levels. For starters, I write a lot more. The job of an investigative reporter doesn’t require writing stories every day, or even every week, as in-depth reporting takes time. But as a blogger, I’ve got to feed the beast five days a week. It’s forced me to be constantly reading, learning, as original content is vital to attracting and keeping an audience. I’m a lot more on top of a wider range of issues. That, in turn, has influenced my approach to writing for print. I feel more compelled to write more frequently. Blogging also has allowed me to establish a two-way relationship with readers. I’m starting to get a fair number of story tips, some of them already partly researched, from readers who react to the blog by sending me an e-mail or making a phone call. The other thing blogging has done is expose my work to a wider audience, including government officials in Albany, and increased the influence of my journalism as a result.
I noticed that you often will link to Buffalo Pundit, etc. Is this something you find helpful as a writer, and a journalist? Are you surprised this is not done more?
I think the local blogging community does a pretty good job of linking to each other. Links are important to online content, as it brings other material, other voices into the mix. It’s a major advantage online has over print. You can learn more by reading an online version of a print story because of all the links and other resources that reporters can provide.
It was interesting recently to see an audio clip of Mayor Brown in one of your posts—a great indication of what online news can do. Talk about this example. What does audio and video add to receiving the news?
A good audio or video clip can drive home a point and give readers a different entry point into the story. In the case of the Brown clip, I thought the intonation of the mayor’s voice communicated something that something that simply could not be relayed through words on a page. I read the quotes in the paper and thought, “Hmm,” and then listed to the audio and thought, “Whoa!” He sounded kind of Nixonian.
What are your thoughts on the other local online news sources—WNYMedia.net, Artvoice’s blog, Buffalo Rising, etc.? what do you think they do or do not do well? Do you feel a sense of competition, or do you feel what they’re doing is different from what the News is doing?
My blogs usually involve some degree of original reporting, while few of the other local bloggers do much legwork before they write. Bloggers here, like elsewhere, are more often riffing off the reporting of the mainstream press. That's not a knock, just a reality. I read a half-dozen or so local blogs every day, and a bunch more on new media and state and national affairs, and I’m always learning from them. I think the Buffalo Pundit is especially good, he’s prolific and a sharp observer of the local political scene. I also get a kick out of the Answer Lady. She does her homework and has spunk. I’d like to see more neighborhood blogs like hers. Artvoice Daily, when so moved, can be a good read. Buffalo Geek has some have some spot-on observations. Fix Buffalo Today offers a window into the East Side that you can’t find anywhere else.
How is your audience evolving? Do you find that more and more people are responding to the News online? It certainly seems that comments have gone way, way up.
Traffic on my blog has increased five-fold on a typical days from what it was when I began. If I have a disappointment, it’s that so many of the comments are inane, like talk radio put to print. I've got some pretty sharp people who also contribute, but there are too many blowhards. It took me a while to get the hang of blogging, haven written for print my whole career. I've found a voice and learned what draws traffic and what doesn't. Muckraking sells, unvarnished truths sells, telling readers something they don’t know sells, especially when it details how they're getting screwed by those in power. I think a well-done blog—that is, one where the writer does his homework as opposed to simply venting—can strike a chord with readers who want "tell it like it is" journalism, without all the blah-blah-blah that comes with so-called "objective reporting," which all too often is the byproduct of lazy, timid reporting. But it’s a fine line to tread.
Do you foresee a time when the print and online content of the News is even more tied together? How does this impact content, and when do you see the online content echoing the product less?
Further integration of print and online is inevitable. How it evolves here at the News, I'm not sure. For newspapers to be successful online, they've got to move beyond simply posting their print editions on the web. Original, multimedia content built around niche communities of interest is vital.
What are your personal hopes for the future of local journalism?
I don’t know if I have hopes as much as hunches. We’re in a period of great upheaval in the news industry, where the fate of daily newspapers and local television news operations is growing more and more perilous. I think it’s inevitable that we’ll see more local online content from a variety of producers. Many will be bloggers and entrepreneurs who will carve out niches. I think it’s already starting to happen. For example, on primary night, I followed Twitter and Buffalo Pundit to track election results. Along with the Board of Elections website, I was able to get timely results more quickly than through traditional news sites. So, in a sense, I've already left the news crawlers at the bottom of the TV screen behind. Ditto for listening to Joe Crangle "analyze." I'd much rather heard from the Pundit and Geek. You might also see some of the national players jump in, too. For example, ESPN.com is starting to launch local editions. If it pans out in the major markets, you could very well see them move into secondary markets, including Buffalo, given that we’ve such a big sports market and have two major league teams.
