Allen wins national investigative reporting prize

Two Las Vegas Sun reporter have won the 2011 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting for a series on substandard medical care in Las Vegas. Splitting the $25,000 prize are Alex Richards and Marshall Allen, a former Pasadena Star-News reporter, who has just taken a job with ProPublica.

(Allen is pictured at far right.)

Allen and Richards took top honors over the highly celebrated duo of Ruben Vives and Jeff Gottlieb, who helped break the story of the salary scandal in the city of Bell, as well as an intensive investigation into massive buildup of America's homeland security apparatus after 9/11 done by the Washington Post. A link to the Sun series is here.

The Sun, which was revitalized by an infusion of money from Brian Greenspun and the leadership of editor Drex Heikes, who helped win the paper a Pulitzer before heading to the LA Weekly, has certainly proven that a newsroom with a free hand to do good work will do good work. Let's hope Heikes can repeat the magic at the Weekly - and that the Weekly owners are paying attention.

Cracking open the reporter's brain pan

One difference between a good reporter and a bad one is that a good reporter usually knows a great deal more about a story than he or she is able to squeeze into a single article. In the old days (BI: Before Internet), the workaround to this information choke was to give the reporter a series, or a niche beat, or even a book. When the institutional/insider knowledge built up to dangerous levels, a reporter might even get a column.

But all of those solutions cost money. Today, mostly the blog serves as the information release valve. The problem is, however, that blogs demand too much and too little at the same time. They need constant feeding, but only want snacks. But for readers to care, the reporter needs to craft the bite-size story into something akin to a funny joke. That's a talent in and of itself, which means many blogs are full of time-consuming flops, flabby and/or caustic criticism, or boring notebook detritus.

As a radio producer, my job is, in part, about giving reporters a chance to say all the things they couldn't fit into a story (after they recount what they did put in the story). Then we give the story a second life by getting people, often experts, to talk and debate. The key is the host - the interlocutor who directs the discussion and asks the questions.

There are news and commentary sites springing up that follow a similar model. Calbuzz, started by Phil Trounstine and Jerry Roberts, is one such outlet. On occasion, it allows good journalists to go deeper into the weeds on stories than most general interest newspapers, but they have an audience that will willingly follow. In this case, too, the two hosts - and their curiosity - drives the conversation.

A good example of this is today's special report from Gene Maddaus, political writer at the LA Weekly. Maddaus took exception to some overly generalized CW on Calbuzz and, in response to his message, the editors asked him to write what most good political writers wish they could cram into their campaign coverage - but don't.

This kind of interaction improves journalism without robbing anyone of their valuable time (Gene didn't have to post the piece if he didn't want to) and without mindless consolidation or content-farming other news outlets have embraced (cough, AOL, cough, MediaNews).

Four today

1. Michael Pollan ("The Omnivore's Dilemma") and Eric Schlosser ("Fast Food Nation") will join KCRW's Evan Kleiman on February 9 at USC to talk about the way we feed ourselves. LA Weekly

2. KOCE has rebranded itself PBS SoCal and plans to expand its staff in Los Angeles as it becomes the main PBS affiliate in Southern California, taking over from the PBS divorcee KCET. Franklin Avenue (via LA Observed)

3. When ordered to turn over information about several users in connection with the federal investigation of Wikipedia, Twitter successfully challenged the court's gag order and told the subjects of the investigation what had happened. Wired

4. Media organizations need to update their codes of ethics to keep up with the times. Poynter

Patch, Patch, Patch

AOL's Patch network hit 750 today - that's 750 individual Patch sites now running across the country. It's up from 500 in early December and up from 30 at the start of the year. I'm told the rapid roll out earned some top managers their holiday bonuses, and that some Patchers worried quality could suffer in the furious effort to meet the goal.

At least AOL realized that the mini-plagiarism outbreak needed a response. A reliable source tells me Patch editors will get mandatory plagiarism-prevention training.

And since I've gotten into a one-way argument with the LA Weekly over all this, here's another thought:

While the Weekly likes to describe Patch as the WalMart of news, I think it risks becoming like a fast-food chain - each franchise operated locally but serving a narrow menu of nearly identical content and dictated to by national headquarters. Think of AOL as the McDonald's Corp. of information and each Patch site as a local joint. Different kids in the play yard, but every Happy Meal the same.

Now, AOL's stated goal is to let individual editors cater to their local communities using only a common platform. Editors are expected to tailor content to local readers, not follow a single AOL formula; and if AOL can resist top-down meddling, and encourage bottom-up innovation, then the network might avoid the fast-food stamp.

But AOL will inevitably count hits and ad dollars and wonder why some site are doing better than others. Being the conglomerate that it is, AOL will think conformity is the best prescription for uneven performance. When controversy strikes - lawsuits, boycotts, plagiarism, etc. - AOL will be tempted to craft one-size-fits-all edicts that will, over time, narrow the menu to the things that work best - i.e., draw the most traffic at the lowest cost.

Of course, news stories aren't Happy Meals and different cities will always have different issues to cover. The best editors at the best Patch sites will resist the mothership. But I haven't seen a newspaper chain yet that hasn't consolidated and embraced sameness as a way to cuts costs in tough times. If Patch can buck the trend, that would be something special.

LA Weekly finds unremarkable Patch journalism remarkable

It should not be surprising that the Echo Park Patch did a solid story about a Christmas Day murder in Echo Park; the kind of thing many good cops reporters would do following a holiday shooting on their beat.

But the LA Weekly was surprised anyway because it had such low expectations. Here's part of the Weekly's blog post:

Here's one thing AOL Patch could be great for, and certainly was in Echo Park this Christmas: documenting the countless gang-related murders that fly under the radar of mainstream media while the homicides of white-collar (and just plain white) victims like celebrity publicist Ronni Chasen get all the airtime. We're often guilty of the same.

-snip-

Here's to you, WalMart of news, for a job well done. And on Christmas Day, no less.

First, why resurrect the wrongheaded "WalMart of news" name calling? AOL has planted Patch sites mostly in smaller, leafy communities that are either affluent or rapidly gentrifying. These are not the places WalMarts generally locate. WalMarts are hub stores that serve their sameness on a regional level, as many newspaper chains do.

(The Weekly does repeat a righteous criticism of AOL for its failure to launch Patch in poor communities - the ones that often need watchdogs the most.)

Second, newspapers sometimes have policies against publishing front-page stories about gang murders. The soundness of these policies is debatable (especially in the era of local blogs), but it's not always a matter of oversight.

Third, why treat Patch as if it were a loopy grandmother who miraculously remembered your name? The sites shouldn't be graded on a curve.

The point here is that local news matters to local readers and Patch, for all its faults, is filling a void left by consolidations at the Weekly, the LA Times, LANG and Freedom. Some sites in the Patch network will do a good job, some won't. The cheap model AOL has used almost guarantees patchy quality. Nevertheless, Patch editors earn more than most LANG reporters and all unemployed former Weekly and Times reporters, so there is a talent pool to tap into.

Also, we should not forget that another website, The Eastsider LA, written by former LA Times reporter Jesus Sanchez, has been keeping an eye on Echo Park and surrounding neighborhoods since 2008.

Is Cooley's goose cooked?

If you're looking for a good read as you wait for an intimate pat down at the airport, Gene Maddaus at the LA Weekly has crunched the numbers in the still-undecided state Attorney General's race and found that Democrat Kamala Harris has an insurmountable lead over Republican Steve Cooley - barring some unforeseen problem with a large number of ballots.

Here's the relevant passage:

The county websites have more up-to-date figures in some cases than the Secretary of State. Using those numbers, we can say that Harris is leading by 49,535 votes. (2:50 update: 51,141 votes.) Given the geographic breakdown of the remaining uncounted ballots, we expect her to expand her lead by another 10,000 votes or so, ending up with a margin of six tenths of a percent (46.0-45.4).

In order to win the race, Cooley would have to win the remaining uncounted votes by a margin of 66-26. (Update at 2:50: Cooley would now have to win by 72-20.) The likelihood of that happening is extremely close to zero. One of his best counties was Orange County, and his margin there was only 60-31.

The Los Angeles Times today followed with a more circumspect story, the writing on the wall is still pretty clear. Of course, Cooley has the option of calling for a recount and challenging ballots, with unknown results (except that we'll have to wait many more weeks before a winner is declared). Cooley is holding a call with reporters today at 10:30 a.m. and we'll see what he says.

P.S. This Weekly's reporting here, with its 538.com edge, is what the paper is uniquely positioned to deliver when it comes to local politics. Hopefully we'll see more of it, although the political reporter the paper hired in June from the Las Vegas Sun, J. Patrick Coolican, recently left the Weekly to go back to the Sun.

J. Gold-en quote

Paula Deen's Southern-fried cooking and Food Network sensibilities have not won over Pasadena foodie and LA Weekly columnist Jonathan Gold. When the Tournament of Roses announced Deen would be the parade's grand marshal in 2011, Gold offered this take to the Pasadena Star-News:

"Paula Deen? That's absolutely horrifying," Gold said in an e-mail Tuesday. "Julia Child grew up on Pasadena Avenue, just a few blocks from the start of the parade, and practically everything Ms. Deen has done both exploits and despoils the culinary movement Child did so much to prod into being.

"As a food person and as a Pasadenan, I should be proud that the committee is honoring somebody in my profession," Gold said, "but the news makes me cringe.

I hope the Star-News or Gold himself spin a feature or two out of this; to explore Child's culinary legacy and the cultural and political overtones of Gold's criticism.

San Francisco vs. Texas, Obama vs. the Tea Party, Gold vs. Deen. It's all coming together.

(found via LA Observed)

AOL Patch combines Wal-Mart and Real Housewives*

The LA Weekly has a story about AOL's Patch network, which pays a single reporter/editor to cover a single community with the help of a stringers. Critics alternatively compare Patch to Wal-Mart, for coming in to upend mom-and-pop newsites, and to the Real Housewives, for chasing ad dollars instead of news:

... instead of bringing journalistic eyes to spots that desperately need it, Patch isn't opening in Bell, Compton, South Gate, Vernon or Cudahy. It's taking the Real Housewives circuit: Beverly Hills, the West Valley and the Westside.

I don't think there's a Wal-Mart in Beverly Hills.

(found via LA Observed)

*Update: A writer for the West Hollywood Patch got caught plagiarizing. I've had my differences with the West Hollywood Patch before.

Tracking down the "Grim Sleeper"

LA Weekly crime reporter Christine Pelisek will be on tonight's "Which Way, LA?" to talk about how "familial DNA" led to the arrest of Lonnie David Franklin Jr. in the case of the "Grim Sleeper" serial killer. Pelisek was the first to report that the killer was still on the loose in South Los Angeles two decades after the first murder. Show starts at 7 p.m. on 89.9 KCRW. WWLA

Comings and goings

J. Patrick Coolican has joined the LA Weekly as a web editor and reporter. Coolican comes from the Las Vegas Sun, where he covered politics. It is no coincidence that Weekly editor Drex Heikes served as deputy managing editor of the Sun during much of Coolican's tenure there.

A new L.A. magazine

Former LA Weekly editors Laurie Ochoa and Joe Donnelly plan to deliver the first edition of their quarterly literary journal Slake in early July. LAO

Next in line

The Latino/labor political machine has a finely tuned process for anointing new leaders in the age of term limits. Gene Maddaus at the LA Weekly profiles the emergence of Ricardo Lara, a nobody to outsiders and already a favorite to win California's 50th Assembly District seat.

Four in the morning

1. Former LA Times and Weekly reporter Daniel Hernandez and others offer some righteous criticism of the "immersion" journalism practiced by The Entryway. LAO

2. The Voice of San Diego has advertised an opening for "engagement editor." Nieman Journalism Lab explores what the job title means. Nieman Lab

3. "Can the iPad feed a Slow Journalism movement?" and eight other questions answered about how the iPad could change news. Ken Doctor

4. MOCA wants kids to break some rules. LA Downtown News

The nine

The LA Weekly evaluated budget planning in the cities of Los Angeles, San Jose and Pasadena and came up with a list of nine mistakes L.A. made on its way to this year's budget crisis. LAW

LA Weekly editor hospitalized

fishbowlLA has the story.

Daily Breeze reporter headed to LA Weekly*

Gene Maddaus, who covered the city of Carson and politics for the Daily Breeze, has accepted a job as a staff writer at the LA Weekly. From the newsroom memo (via LA Observed):

We have hired a reporter to fill our staff writer opening. Gene Maddaus of the Daily Breeze will come aboard Jan. 11.

Gene is an energetic, tough-minded reporter who has laid down a lot of shoe leather working at three newspapers in Southern California. He has an impressive record of enterprise and investigative work, stories he turned out at a time when that kind of reporting is harder to execute at daily newspapers.

At the Daily Breeze, Gene covered politics and Carson City Hall for more than three years. Before that, he covered the city of Pasadena for the Pasadena Star-News. He began his newspaper career at the Inland Valley Times, a now-defunct Times Community newspaper.

Gene is a 2000 graduate of Syracuse University in 2000. He grew up in Maine.

Gene also is a a former colleague of mine and I wish him the best.

*Update: Memo from Daily Breeze City Editor Frank Suraci:

To all,

Congratulations are in order for our colleague Gene Maddaus, who will be leaving the staff in two weeks to join LA Weekly. Gene has done solid work for us covering politics and the city of Carson and we'll miss his firebrand reporting style.

Join me in wishing Gene the best as he moves along to the next chapter of his career.

Frank

P.S. Haven't heard from Jim Dear yet, but I imagine he'll consider this the best Christmas gift a guy could get.

For those not immersed in Carson politics, Jim Dear is the city's mayor.

The corrections

In this week's medical marijuana wars...

On Thursday, Vince Beiser at Huffington Post criticizes the LA Weekly's coverage of L.A.'s medical marijuana dispensaries, calling it "half baked." He says the paper did a fine job of chronicling the city's hapless effort to regulate pot clubs, but then repeated without evidence claims that the clubs attract crime. From HuffPo:

But the reporters leap from those carefully collected facts into pure hype about how pot shops are breeding crime. We are told that there is "rising crime in and around them," that "20 unregulated pot dispensaries (are) attracting crime in ... Eagle Rock", and that LAPD Chief Charlie Beck says, "They are the hub of crime ... A lot of nighttime break-ins and robberies." Not one of these scary-sounding claims is backed up with a single statistic.

Crime stats are easy to gather -- you can find them mapped block-by-block on the LAPD's website.

On Friday, the LA Weekly strikes back. But HuffPo isn't the target. Instead, the paper launches a two-pronged critique of the Los Angeles Times and NPR for their coverage of the same issue, saying they don't have their facts straight. From the Weekly:

Maybe NPR has been reading too much of the Los Angeles Times coverage of this city's pot shop problem, or maybe one of its reporters is relying too heavily on the word of local politicians, but a recent post on the NPR blog gets many facts wrong about L.A.'s medical weed ordinance and all the hub-bub surrounding it.

Can't we all just mellow out?

The corrections

A finger-pointing session broke out this week in the L.A. blogosphere.

Patterico claims James Rainey at the Los Angeles Times got only one side (the wrong one) in the ACORN saga ... Celeste Fremon at WitnessLA calls some of the coverage in the LA Weekly "cringe-makingly slanted" ... new LA Weekly blogger Dennis Romero points out a few mistakes in Neon Tommy's feature on the incoming editor ... and fishbowlLA slaps back at the Weekly for getting so defensive about Neon Tommy's take.

(And most of these links come via LA Observed)

Four in the morning

1. I guess we now know what Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy thinks of prior restraint. NYT

2. California Watch and KQED's public radio program California Report have teamed up. CW

3. The LA Weekly has hired a new blogger. LAO

4. It's good to be a New Yorker: The magazine hasn't suffered the kinds of cuts that its sister publications have. NYO

Pasadena Gold

According to Eating L.A., the November issue of Pasadena magazine - which I've heard of but never seen - will feature a piece by Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold. It's not clear if Gold, who still writes for the LA Weekly, will be a regular contributor.