As regular readers know, we've been away from blogging for about ten days or so and as we ease ourselves back into our daily routine, we're catching up on some of the events of the North Coast during our absence.
While we were away, one of our loyal and regular readers fired off a note for us, suggesting a little must reading upon our return.
That it the form of this editorial page contribution in the weekly paper from last Thursday's edition which seems to take note of the stresses on the state of their craft these days and certainly presents an interesting view as to how the Foundry of Unsubstantiated Bombast on Fraser Street sees things.
Judging by the tone of their notes, taking advantage of some sustainable federal assistance for local newspapers (see page 373), seems to have brought out a bit more snark than usual from Team Todd these days.
A collective which last week cast its gaze disapprovingly at Social Media and bloggers; delivering some commentary that perhaps calls for just a bit of balance, lest anyone think that just because the weekly paper may publish it, actually makes it a fact ....
Now we had no idea that there were other bloggers on the North Coast covering local events and we hope that the weekly paper eventually provides a link to all of that work that has so captured their gaze and appears to irritate them so much.
As we would love to see what else is out there, sure in our belief that their shots across the bow of those who blog can't possibly be directed towards our humble little effort.
Could they?
We say that, first by putting aside some of their self serving rumination on news-gathering, none of which come with any factual documentation; while we consider one of the centre pieces for their entire screed.
That of the nature of City Council coverage in the community, particularly those notes that they make when it comes to their body of work on the theme of following the efforts of our elected officials.
And from that focus, we suggest that if one was to conduct even a short review of overall community coverage of City Council, they would see how this blog surely can't be the one under the skin of Todd and the typing pool on Fraser Street.
Particularly, since we offer a very different approach and deliver a larger story count from what they occasionally provide for.
For the most part, for a number of years now, we have provided for some expansive coverage of Council, with detailed feature items, complete with backing information in the way of links to Council documentation and video presentation.
Over those years we have outlined quite a number of developments from City Council and City Hall that don't ever seem to find the space, either in print or digitally at the Fraser Street relay station.
Those handy with a calendar and a calculator can review our archives here.
The North Coast Review City Council Discussion Archive featured above, hosts all of the work of the local media in the region that covers council (some more diligently than others as you will see), along with our own notes (ours have the NCR beside them for easy identification) and well ... we will let you do the math as to who provides the more comprehensive notes.
Beyond that, it seems that the weekly paper (and a few others in the local media troupe) do seem to miss the occasional City Council session along the way, as well as a fair bit of civic news from time to time.
In fact, they missed one session just before we took our Easter Siesta, that being the Special City Council Session of Thursday, April 18th which put the final stamp of approval on the City Budget and the new Salary regimen for Council members for this year.
(The weekly paper it seems, had apparently decided that the final word had been spoken at the Monday, April 15th session)
That Special session of Thursday, April 18th, which we reviewed the very next day, featured some pretty important observations that had been made from our elected officials at the municipal level.
That as the salary debate took its last gasps before the council members voted to increase their pay packets. Since it appears that the session has yet to have been reviewed anywhere else among our local media, you can read about it here, if you're inclined.
It's also of note, that so far the paper with all that self professed comprehensive City Council coverage, has no mention of the most recent city council session of two days ago (though they may still be out pounding the pavement as they put it in their editorial), a council meeting which we will have notes on shortly as part of our return to the blog today.
In addition to our extensive coverage of City Council, we also take some time to review the work of the two regional MLA's in the Northwest, whose status as elected officials at times seems to be just a rumour when it comes to the content of the local paper and some of the other media options ...
And just before we packed up our suitcase and hit the road over the Easter weekend, we also made note of some pretty impressive cargo throughput from the Port charting the success of the region's major economic engine.
Once again, that's something we haven't stumbled across as of yet elsewhere, as we catch up on the items we missed ... not that there was much to catch up on it seems from our ten day break.
From the period of our absence from April 20 to last night the 30th, we counted eight locally authored stories related to Prince Rupert over the last ten days in the weekly paper.
Most of which seem to be of the lighter fare of community events notes, as opposed to what most folks might consider news related items.
By comparison, on average we offer between six to eight stories on a daily basis when we take to the production of our little project here.
Come to think of it, tracking the work of local media and its dedication towards local news, may actually make for a fascinating project for a journalism student to take on; should they wish to dig further into this apparent escalating dislike of blogs, social media and such.
For if one were to put together an actuarial table on our blog notes over the years - versus local media contributions -- we're pretty secure here at our end in the belief that our work would come out just fine and quite often is listed hours, days and in some cases by weeks prior to the accounts of the same story from some of the other media contributions found locally.
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| No time for humility, as the Weekly paper sang their own praises in an editorial page presentation last week |
In the end, perhaps a little less time obsessing on the ways of bloggers and the workings of social media, might allow for more time for the team on Fraser Street to keep a finger on the pulse of some of the news around the community.
But as we said, we're sure they're not thinking of us, but some other blogger who seems to be rubbing them the wrong way.
One other note, while the weekly is counting up the financial benefits from the Feds, the ad revenues from the Province, along with those helpful City of Prince Rupert dollars from the advertisements that can be found among the back pages; keep in mind as to how they all could make for contributions that remind the staff of the paper on a daily basis of the need to cultivate those valuable partnerships ...
For the North Coast Review, the blog is best of all just another community resource for you the reader to explore.
Whether you wish to read it or not, is something that is completely up to you. At least for as long as public observation and comment will still be allowed for that is.
Think of it as a taxation free zone project, one where we collect no funds from any government to remain sustainable and collect no advertising; so we don't really have to tread very carefully on how we may frame our stories, lest our notes irritate those who control those financial streams!
Mostly we just observe what we see around the community, offer up some background on the items that capture OUR interest and YES, it being a blog of comment; we offer an OPINION from time to time (God Forbid anyone being allowed to have one of those around this town apparently).
Sometimes perhaps even to the point of annoyance for local journalists and politicians ...
Which, come to think of it, isn't really all that bad a thing, now is it?
Finally, rather than just to take the editorial and rhetorical bumph from the weekly paper as some kind of biblical passage; we invite those new to the blog to dig a little deeper into our archives, available here, just to see what we have to offer.
As well, of note from the paper's self absorbed style guide proclamations, is an opportunity now available for you the reader to do your own research and make your own comparisons of all of the other media elements in the community and the region.
Looking as you do, to see just who is covering what and whenever it was that they covered it!
At any rate, enough on the existential angst of Team Todd on Fraser Street.
Let's catch up on some "news" shall we ...
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