Civic Journalism: Six Case Studies
TALLAHASSEE, FLA.
"The Public Agenda"

From Theory to Proposal

In some ways, everything Heldman did as a journalist before taking over the Tallahassee Democrat   led to "The Public Agenda." At the Detroit Free Press, he learned that a newspaper could be part of a community and not sell its readers short. In Miami, he discovered the value of exploring the community and asking the readers for guidance as he helped create El Nuevo Herald,  the Spanish-language edition of the Miami Herald.  Moving to Boca Raton to spearhead Knight-Ridder's 25-43 project, Heldman refined the use of focus groups and experimented with different ways the newspaper and the community could interact.

"The important thing about focus groups [is] I don't think, for the most part, readers -- people -- are heard in newsrooms," Heldman said.

"The Public Agenda" isn't the Tallahassee Democrat's  first foray into civic journalism. In 1992, with little fanfare outside Tallahassee, the Democrat  focused on local elections with "Your Vote, Your Future." The paper spent $10,000 on an issues poll, then worked with public television and radio to produce election specials. Unlike many election projects, the effort wasn't limited to a small cadre in the newsroom. Every newsroom department contributed copy and everyone in the building was encouraged to support the editorial effort. Staffers even wore "Your Vote" T-shirts on Fridays preceding the election and the business staff gave the editorial staff a party.

Election officials credited "Your Vote" for a 15 percent rise in voter registration that fall and a Tallahassee turnout that led the state. Some of the methods the election project embraced became part of the paper's legislative coverage, especially the efforts to engage the public.

Encouraged by that effort, Heldman wanted to find a way to move civic journalism beyond elections and politics. About the same time, editorial writer Bill Edmonds spent a month at Duke University as part of a Knight-Ridder continuing education program. During an ethics course in the religion department, Edmonds came in contact with Daniel Yankelovich's book Coming to Public Judgment. Excited about the possibilities Yankelovich offered for public action through public dialogue, Edmonds wrote Heldman a long letter about the book, and the potential of its ideas for the Democrat.

"That was really the first spark although we didn't realize it at the time," Heldman recalled later.

Then, Heldman had the chance to put the pieces together at a 1993 conference on civic journalism at the American Press Institute in Reston, Va. When the participants gathered for a final session to discuss what they had learned and what they planned to do with their newfound knowledge, Heldman showed the group a Public Agenda page he had sketched the night before.

The page evolved from Heldman's determination to give the theory of civic journalism some practical applications. "I had to think in terms of how things go on newspaper pages," Heldman said.

Heldman heard that The Pew Charitable Trusts were talking with Knight-Ridder about providing seed money for some civic journalism initiatives and took the next step. He talked to nearly two dozen people as he framed a proposal for funding. Publisher Carroll Dadisman was supportive from the start. Equally important, Heldman was able to shift some of his newsroom responsibilities to Managing Editor Bob Shaw and to use Shaw as a sounding board about the proposal.

"The intent all along was to keep the [initial] planning and organization of this outside the newsroom," Shaw said. "Planning a project of this magnitude would have stretched [the news staff] very thin."