Martin Weinberger, long-time Courier publisher, has died*

Martin Weinberger, long-time owner and publisher of the Claremont Courier, died early today after a period of failing health. He was 82.

Weinberger was a patron of local journalism - a last bastion of quality in a sea of chains and community-based fluff. He put real stories on the page for decades (though his affinity was photography). The mere fact that he survived the newspaper bloodbath is testimony to what he'd built. Courier alumni include Los Angeles Times reporter David Zahniser and Times photographers Genaro Molina and George Rose (Rose is no longer at the Times).

I worked for Martin as a reporter and editor between 1997 and 2002. He was of another age: He was still pasting up the paper the year I left. When he recited the axioms of our newsroom heroes, he got the words right and meant what he said. Claremont City Hall never truly understood him and it never ignored him. He will be missed by those who knew him, and by a world that's leaving his hard-earned wisdom behind.

*Update: From the Courier's Facebook page:

The COURIER staff is sad to report that owner Martin Weinberger died July 5th at 12:20 a.m. Mr. Weinberger bought the COURIER in 1955 and remained at the helm until his retirement in 2008. He is survived by his wife, Janis; his son, Peter, the current publisher; his daughter-in-law, Betsy; and his grandchildren, Matthew and Collette. Service arrangements are pending.

Los Angeles Times rides the public document wave

The Los Angeles Times has launched an online public documents clearinghouse that offers readers a chance to learn more about what government documents are available under the California Public Records Act and how to obtain them. Readers are also asked to share records they've gotten from public agencies.

The project follows the Times reporting on the City of Bell salary scandal, which made use extensive use of such public records as executive employment contracts.

The Times, in my experience, has sought out public records in a public way. When I worked at the little Claremont Courier, the Times stepped in to sue for some public records denied to our paper. This obviously gave the Times reporters a crack at a story they might otherwise have missed, but the lawyers for the Times (Karlene Goller, Alonzo Wickers III, etc.) were extremely helpful and kept me, and by extension our readers, abreast of the case.

My hope is the Times expands the project to include the several nonprofits that do the heavy lifting when it comes to lobbying for more sunshine (CalAware, California First Amendment Coalition, CNPA, etc.) as well as other publications (at least nonprofits). Of course, the paper doesn't need to tell everyone what documents it's use for active stories, but once the stories are published, they can join the cloud-sourcing pile.

AOL Patch finds another leafy town

AOL's Patch has added South Pasadena to its growing network. Sonia Narang, who's worked as an online producer for PBS Frontline and NBC News, will cover the leafy city known for its parks, virulent opposition to the 710 Freeway extension, and public schools that attract discouraged couples from Pasadena.

Indeed, Patch sites are springing up with greater frequency across the Southland, and mostly in towns with that single-family, real-estate rich, suburban feel. (You can find the list here.) Whether the Patch network ever earns a reputation for digging or watchdog reporting, it increasingly seems to me to be a stable model for a form of hometown news.

By hopscotching over cities that are too big to be covered by one person, or present challenges with low readership or lack of business (cities that deserve and need to be covered, by the way), Patch can avoid "wasting" resources. By paying a better wage than most area newspaper chains, it will earn a reputation among reporters as a step up, even if the coverage is softer and less newsy. And, most importantly, it has the ability to become the local newspaper, for lack of a better term, in cities with populations that have the time and inclination to read and talk about hometown news. Indeed, many of these places once had city papers before the chains came in to gobble them up.

The drawback - and the biggest challenge - is the mission. Single editors are being asked to do a lot with a little, including that fancy multi-platform journalism, which requires video and sound and images and words all neatly and compellingly sewn together by one person. Additionally, hometown papers often thrive because they are owned by a local with a deep investment in journalistic standards and civic life. For Patch, some editors will get it and others won't.

And as someone who started at a twice weekly in a leafy town (Claremont), I know how easy it is to beat the bigger guys and earn local respect. If AOL encourages this kind of journalism to flourish (and I have my doubts, having read some of the Patch work produced in West Hollywood, for example) this could be a useful service. If AOL sees Patch as a series of straws to siphon local ad dollars into a national bank account, it will only add to the misery visited upon local journalism by newspaper-chain gangs.

Of course, I still lament the loss of tough city reporting, whether it be South Pasadena or South Gate. Patch isn't a solution to this, but it can be something more than over-the-fence gossip and the latest senior center press release.

Has it come to this? Yes.

Grist's Jennifer Prediger (a former colleague at the Claremont Courier) donned a fox mask and asked for donations to keep the nonprofit website's environmental journalists on the payroll. Cutesy or not, direct appeals will have to become more the norm than the exception if important - but often neglected - forms of journalism are to continue to thrive.

Here's the video:

The national battle for local supremacy*

The Bay Area edition of the New York Times launches tomorrow. The edition consists of a few pages of content focused on San Francisco, Silicon Valley and the East Bay which will, initially, be written by the Times's 10-person Bay Area news bureau. In the long run, the paper will pick up stories from other news outlets.

From the press release:

A longer-term objective of this initiative is to work with local journalists and news organizations in a collaborative way, first in the Bay Area and then in other major markets around the country. The Times is in discussions with news organizations in the Bay Area about supplying journalism for these pages.

Zachary Seward at Nieman Journalism Lab says the Bay Area edition is the latest salvo in a quiet war between the Times and the Wall Street Journal to be the national newspaper of choice in affluent markets. Seward also points to a 2005 study shows local papers usually get more local and blue collar when the Times moves in:

It’s also worth considering how an insurgence of national newspapers affects their local counterparts. A fascinating study in 2005 found that when The New York Times increased its penetration in a market, college-educated readers abandoned their local newspapers. But at the same time, local newspapers upped their focus on local news and, at least back then, increased their circulation among readers without a college degree. That dynamic isn’t limited to print, but it’s certainly the battle being fought on my stoop.

I remember a readership study done in the city of Claremont when there were three papers covering the city that bears this out. It was 1998 or 1999 and I worked at the twice-weekly Claremont Courier, which the study showed had its highest penetration among college-educated readers - a good demographic to target in a town with five colleges. The Los Angeles Times was moving in aggressively with its own locally produced edition that wrapped around the main paper. The study showed it appealed to the same readers. I suspect many, if not most of the Courier readers subscribed to both. The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, owned by Dean Singleton's MediaNews, was bigger in the non-college educated, blue-collar areas of the city.

But, as Seward points out, local papers aren't investing and competing like they did only a few years ago. The Times closed its local bureaus. The Bulletin is a shell of its former self. The Courier continues to chug along, although it struggles to maintain its focus now that longtime publisher Martin Weinberger is out of the picture.

*Update: Sacramento Bee columnist Daniel Weintraub will write for Times' Bay Area edition, LA Observed reports. He's also starting a nonprofit website to cover health care news.

Afternoon links

The Claremont League of Women Voters is hosting a panel called "Print Journalism and the Challenge of the Internet" on Saturday, March 21. Panelists include Peter Weinberger, publisher of the Claremont Courier; Steve Lambert, general manager of the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group, and Larry Pryor, professor of journalism at USC.

MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton likes the thought of owning all of the major dailies in Bay Area, including the emperiled San Francisco Chronicle. "Consolidation" is the watchword.

Shuttering newspapers does have consequences for democracy: political incumbents gain an even greater edge, a study shows.

Alan Mutter and Jeff Jarvis debate whether the newspaper is a dying institution in today's "Dust Up" in the Los Angeles Times.

Courier blog

The Claremont Courier, where I got my start in newspapers, has a new blog.

More problems for water board member

Xavier Alvarez, troubled Three Valleys Municipal Water District board member, faces three felony counts for allegedly funneling health insurance funds to his ex-wife. The L.A. District Attorney's Public Integrity Division is prosecuting.

Alvarez, you may remember, has a history of bad decision-making.

Turkey tussle*

Usually, Thanksgiving Day animus is contained to airports and dining room tables. But a political correctness battle broke out today over the annual turkey feast celebration at Condit Elementary School in Claremont.

From the LAT:

After a handful of parents complained that the Native American headdresses and vests were demeaning, cartoonish stereotypes, the Claremont Unified School District eliminated the costumes from this year's festivities, but allowed the turkey feast to go forward.

This led parents on both sides to a protest outside of the school, which led to a heated exchange, which led to a call to the police. Police also got an anxious call from Claremont Unified Superintendnet David Cash, who told police he feared for his safety after receiving "hate e-mails."

The Times continues:

"It's been wild," said one woman who declined to give her name. Meanwhile, the kindergartners -- some of whom showed up wearing their banned costumes -- frolicked on the playground, eating, running and chattering with friends, [police Lt. Dennis] Smith said. "The kids were oblivious," he added, "as they should be."

*Updated story from the LAT, story from the Claremont Courier.

At the Courier

The Claremont Courier is one of the few remaining independently owned newspapers in Southern California with a history of producing strong journalism in a small market (hyperlocal before it was cool). Los Angeles Times reporter David Zahniser is one of the better known alumni.

The paper has faced an uncertain future ever since publisher and owner Martin Weinberger had to step down for health reasons. Weinberger's son, Peter, recently took over as publisher and has promoted Kathryn Dunn as managing editor.

Peter W. has worked as a photojournalist for 30 years, most recently as photo director at the Charlotte Observer. Dunn has worked off and on at the Courier for 17 years, most recently as production editor. I hope they work to restore the scrappy but ambitious newspaper I remember from when I worked there.