Waterfront Renaissance, Everett, WA 2001

Partners:

The Herald
KSER-FM Public Radio

The paper's "Waterfront Renaissance" project marked a new development in interactive journalism, marrying the credibility of the news organization with Web-based game technology that had previously been used mainly on advertising and entertainment sites.

When the Herald set out not simply to inform but also to engage residents in the city's effort to develop a comprehensive shoreline plan, it used many familiar civic journalism tools. A four-part series of stories, which began April 22, 2001, explained the options for the waterfront and included success stories from other cities, as well as a clip-and-send form to get citizen input into what should happen on Everett's waterfront. The paper also sought citizen input through 10 neighborhood meetings and a larger town meeting where a national waterfront-development expert spoke.

New technology allowed the paper to include a novel option on its Web site. Users could click on a map of the waterfront and, using a menu of icons on the screen, design their own waterfront development plan. They could play with the Sim City-like choices until they were satisfied with their designs and then electronically submit them. Some 420 people submitted their designs this way. Another 600 mailed in paper versions. In addition, 300 residents signed a petition demanding no development and delivered it to the Herald on the final day it was accepting the filled-in maps. The paper reported the results - the most popular option people chose for the sites was parks - and helped set up four independent watchdog groups to ensure public input would be considered in the final development. By the following year, one citizen favorite, bike paths, was starting to happen.

Contact:

Stan Strick
Executive Editor
The Herald
1213 California Street
Everett, WA 98201
Phone: (425) 339-3480
Email: strick@heraldnet.com

Mark Briggs
New Media Editor/Manager
The Herald
1213 California Street
Everett, WA 98201
Phone: (425) 339-3000
Email: briggs@heraldnet.com

Millenium Leadership Project, WA 1999

Partners:

The Front Porch Forum
The Seattle Times
KUOW-FM

The partners sought input from some 40 Seattle area citizens for a project exploring local leadership and what the consensus-loving region seeks in those who lead its public institutions. The partners hosted informal discussions with one group of people who head up leadership development programs and a second group of recognized leaders from Seattle's communities of color. They also held two focus groups with residents to explore the topic.

The partners concluded that participants wanted leaders who show a willingness to take risks, creativity, confidence, commitment and humility. However, few participants could name any local leaders who embodied these traits or whom they felt were well qualified and positioned to lead the region in the future. Instead, they spoke of a lack of leadership on local issues, with more conservative participants believing the private sector was better equipped than the public sector to address these issues.

Reporters used the information to frame a series of stories that ran in The Times and on KUOW in the fall of 1999. The effort proved useful in covering breaking news, as well. When the Seattle police chief was forced to resign after protests disrupted the World Trade Organization meeting in 2000, the partners were able to report what the community was looking for in a new chief.

Contact:

Marion Woyvodich
1138 North 82nd Street
Seattle, WA 98103-4405
Phone: (206) 522-5754
Email: MWoyvodich@aol.com

A Duty to Protect, Tacoma, WA 2001

Partners:

The News Tribune
KCTS-TV (PBS)
KPLU-FM

The Washington state legislature was poised in January 2002 to limit lawsuits that could be brought by victims of crimes committed by prisoners on parole until a poll commissioned by the partners showed 90 percent of the state supported the victims' right to sue. The measure was tabled, a sign of success for a project that sought to inject citizens' voices into the debate over what to do about the state parole system.

The partners undertook the project "A Duty to Protect" in 2001, when the state spent $53 million dollars in judgments or settlements for lawsuits stemming from parolee crime - almost as much as it spent to monitor parolees. It was clear the parole system needed reform but it was not clear what form that should take.

The partners surveyed 400 Washington residents in October and November to see where they stood on the issue. They found most wanted to retain the right to sue and less than half supported caps on damages.

The poll became the basis for a series of reports that began Jan. 7, 2002 on KCTS-TV's "Currents" public affairs program. KPLU-FM and The News Tribune each began a three-part series on Jan.13 to coincide with the start of the legislative session. The partners also collaborated on a Web site, www.adutytoprotect.org, that included the survey, a forum on parole issues and links to lawmakers and parole organizations around the country.

The legislature did take limited reform action in 2002. It passed a measure that would allow state agencies to investigate parole system failures without fear the reports would be used in litigation. Fear of litigation had kept the state from conducting meaningful investigations. It was hoped the new bill would allow the state to learn from its mistakes.

Contact:

Peggy Bellows
Senior Editor
News Tribune
1950 S. State St.
Tacoma, WA 98405-0008
Phone: (253) 597-8456
Email: peggy.bellows@mail.tribnet.com

Key Moments, Spokane, WA 1999

Partners:

The Spokesman-Review

A team of reporters and editors used (and helped refine) civic journalism "mapping" tools to chart the key moments in the lives of children that can make the difference between success and failure in adulthood. Building on its "City of Second Chances" project, which told the story of Spokane's expanding ex-felon population and how prisons were not solving the problem of troubled people who are incarcerated, the newspaper wanted to answer the question: What would it take to change the lives of people who end up in prison?

The paper held four roundtable discussions with educators, police, religious leaders, counselors and others. That helped editors develop a list of 10 moments in life that are critical in affecting whether kids stray or stay on track. They include five chronological moments: conception to birth, birth to age 3 and the bonding process, age 10, the first day of 7th grade, and adolescent rites of passage such as driving, drinking and sex. There are also five developmental moments: making friends, major moves, times of loss, first failure and first success, and values development.

The Spokesman-Review then surveyed more than 70 teenagers, asking them to evaluate their own experiences in these key moments and where they found help getting through them. Reporter Jeanette White mined the community for children and young adults who exemplified these transitions.

The 10-part series "Key Moments," published in the summer of 2000, included an overview of each key moment, intimate personal stories that put a human face on each one and boxes with tips and lists or resources - all drawn from this innovative use of mapping, focus groups and surveys. After the series ran, the paper held two community forums on the series that helped parents connect with specialists in the community for help during key moments.

Contact:

Chris Peck, (former Spokesman-Review editor)
Editor
The Commercial Appeal
P.O. Box 364
Memphis, TN 38101
Phone: (901) 529-2322

Rebecca Nappi
The Spokesman-Review
999 W. Riverside Ave.
Spokane, WA 99201
Phone: (509) 459-5496
Email: Rebeccan@spokesman.com

Reinventing Beat Reporting, Spokane, WA 2002

Partners:

The Spokesman-Review, spokesmanreview.com

Pew support allowed the paper to experiment with interactive on-line journalism tools that improved connections between reporters and readers and users. One of the most successful tools was an automated email system that was being widely used by reporters and editors within months of being created in early 2002. The system allows reporters to send out queries to a large database of readers and users. By the end of 2002, the Spokesman-Review's database had 4,000 names in it. This was used in many ways.

For example, a reporter working on the Sept.11 anniversary story asked readers to share their thoughts about the events of that day. She found the best sources, including the person in the lead, through responses to her email. Another reporter covering the controversy over hormone replacement therapy found valuable sources though an email sent to women over 50.

Also in 2002, the paper moved to Blogs (Web logs) to interact with readers on stories of broad interest. A blog on the State B basketball championship was wildly popular with fans and even some players who were able to interact with the site in real time. A similar approach made coverage of a vote on the incorporation of a new city more engaging. Turn-out in the election was higher than predicted by local officials.

Another new feature the paper's Web site began offering in the summer of 2002 consisted of multi-media, on-line obits: feature-length profiles of recently deceased local residents, including a slide show of family pictures with background audio from a family member talking about the deceased. Public response was extremely positive.

The paper lacked the software to count how many users were going to the newly added features but traffic to the site was increasing through 2002. And the ideas were spreading to other papers. Interactive editor Ken Sands helped 27 newspapers involved in the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) Credibility Roundtable to install some version of the database email system. He expected the tools the paper created to lead to continued innovation, including a portable producing station for creating real time, multi-media coverage of events.

Contact:

Ken Sands
Managing Editor, Online and New Media
The Spokesman-Review
999 W. Riverside Ave.
Spokane, WA 99201
Phone: (509) 459-5014
Email: kens@spokesman.com

Front Porch Forum, Seattle, WA 1998

Partners:

The Seattle Times
KCTS
KPLU-FM
KUOW-FM

Following up on the 1997 mock trial on growth in the Puget Sound, the partners confronted longstanding assumptions about the issue with a series called, "Growth: Enough already?"

The mock jury in the 1997 "Puget Sound 2020" project had startled the partners by ignoring the common wisdom about growth - that it can't be avoided; only managed. Participants said they favored stopping growth altogether. So the partners decided to explore whether that was really possible.

Beginning May 17, 1998, the partners produced stories exploring five broad themes: 1) Is growth inevitable? 2) Does growth pay for itself? Should it? 3) The impact of government economic development incentives. 4) Immigration and growth. 5) The birth rate and growth. Each installment invited reader feedback, which was published in subsequent issues or broadcasts.

In October, the partners gathered 30 demographically representative citizens from the region to discuss policy alternatives for managing growth. Three county Executives observed the session and offered comments afterward. Reporters included the citizen and politicians' comments in a final wrap up report in the Times, Nov. 22 and on radio and television Nov. 23.

Contact:

David Boardman
Assistant Managing Editor
The Seattle Times
PO Box 70
Seattle, WA 98111
Phone: (206) 464-2205
Email: dboardman@seattletimes.com

Front Porch Forum, Seattle, WA 1997

Partners:

The Seattle Times
KCTS
KPLU-FM
KUOW-FM

With all the Seattle area had going for it in the mid-90's, there was a sense that the region could not sustain its enviable quality of life into the 21st Century. The "Front Porch Forum" partners saw this as an opportunity to expand their civic journalism effort beyond politics and elections and into community-based decision-making about the future. "Puget Sound 2020" involved more than 2,000 citizens in imagining what the region should look like in 20 years and what it would take to make it happen.

Reporting kicked off in the summer of 1997 with 13 reporters from the participating newsrooms attending a series of "Pizza on the Porch" parties in which 1,500 residents talked about the region's future informally over pizza in private homes. Concerns that emerged included traffic, affordable housing and teachers' salaries. The results were used to formulate a public opinion poll conducted in September.

Then in October, 1997, the partners empaneled a mock "jury" of 100 citizens selected randomly from the area that heard oral arguments by "prosecutors" and "defense attorneys" on regional issues. They found the region "guilty" of failing to plan well enough for the future. The judge "sentenced" them to return for a second Saturday of deliberations to come up with solutions. The sessions were covered by the paper and aired in edited form by the broadcast partners. The deliberations also yielded a report for policy makers on sustaining the region's quality of life. That report was integrated into election coverage, with "jurors" asking candidates for King County Executive and Seattle Mayor to respond to the suggestions at separate forums.

David Boardman
Managing Editor
The Seattle Times Co.
PO Box 70
Seattle, WA 98111
TEL: (206) 464-2160
FAX: (206) 464-2261
EMAIL: dboardman@seattletimes.com

Marion Woyvodich
1138 North 82nd Street
Seattle, WA 98103-4405
TEL: (206) 522-5754
FAX: (206) 528-5528
EMAIL: MWoyvodich@aol.com

Eric Pryne
Staff Reporter
The Seattle Times
P.O. Box 70
Seattle, WA 98111
TEL: (206) 464-2231
FAX: (206) 464-2261
EMAIL: epryne@seattletimes.com

Ross Reynolds
Program Director/News Director
KUOW-FM
PO Box 535750
Seattle, WA 98195
Phone: (206) 543-2710
Email: rar@u.washington.edu