The Lost Art of Reporting

After the Washington Post landed six Pulitzer Prizes today for its robust reporting on a variety of topics, Post columnist and weblogger Joel Achebach pointed out the obvious:

The Post has just won six Pulitzer Prizes, which looks like a typo. It was a newsroom-wide triumph -- Metro, National, Investigative, Foreign, Financial, Magazine. Within that Variety Pack of journalism, there's a common ingredient -- something we too seldom discuss when we cogitate about how to reinvent the business model: Reporting.

Original reporting still matters. It's probably our best gimmick. It's what we do (imperfectly to be sure) better than anyone else in the news business. It also can't be easily replaced on the cheap by some other information-delivery system.

True that. People are the strongest resource of any newspaper or magazine -- a good reporter and a good editor are worth their weight in gold. Without good writing and solid reporting, newspapers are nothing more than advertorial containers for rewritten press releases, minutes from public meetings and obituaries (all of which can turn into magic with guidance from a genius editor).

A weblog with three good reporter/writers and a solid copy editor could turn Richmond on its head.