1st forum provides lots of suggestions. What do you think?

Posted By: David Fortier August 15, 2021

By David Fortier 

Come Sunday morning, I will be walking at least a half mile a day, which amazes me. How can this be happening? I have a new knee. I know others have gone through this. But this is me. This is my knee. Incredible. Of course, I have a way to go, but from all appearances, things appear to be going well. Knock on wood. 

During the week, TBE held its first community forum at the Stone House at Rockwell Park. Only a couple of people showed, which is fine with us. That the temperature hit plus 100-degree heat index, did not help. We are just at the beginning, and it’s important to establish who we are and what we stand for not only for us to function well but also for others to understand where we are coming from. 

So where are we coming from? The quick and easy answer is that we are a pro-democracy project, that we exist to promote democracy and civic engagement.  It means that we are part of the solution to a problem that is debilitating communities across the country—poor local news coverage—which wreaks havoc on our community identify. Our solution—The Bristol Edition. 

TBE staff, from left, pose at The Stone House at Rockwell Park at the first TBE community forum: David Fortier, Anna Bedell, Rit Carter, Jack Krampitz and Mike Letendre. (Photo by H. Letendre)

Toward this end, we have incorporated as a non-profit, which means that any revenue will go back into our community in the form of jobs and better coverage. We think it’s a beginning. At some point soon we will be sharing more about our business model. 

For the time being, it is as simple as this: our readers want more coverage of city hall, so that means we need to hire a reporter. To hire a reporter, we let our readers know how much that will cost, and then they decide through their subscriptions/donations whether this is financially feasible. 

We will be transparent when it comes to our revenue streams and show how they support our readers’/subscriber needs.  

The current newspaper model practiced by our local rival does the opposite: invests as little as possible in its coverage and strips as much profit as possible from its operations so that it barely deserves the name of newspaper. 

So we will have held our first community forum and the people who showed up shared some of their thoughts about TBE. Here are a few of their thoughts and suggestions: 

  • More coverage of the Board of Ed, along the lines of how many teachers are vaccinated, getting different perspectives about the teaching profession and how it has changed. Another, setting up interesting features with opposing views, such as one that a participant recalled from years ago: an article on the Vietnam War, one from a veteran and another from a conscientious objector. 
  • More about the Blues, at least box scores, but emphasizing the Bristol connection. 
  • Mandatory coverage of city hall, city meetings, city business. 
  • How to post in more creative ways rather than individual posts. Maybe try evening or morning newsletters with links. 
  • Why are TBE stories showing up on aggregators without proper identification. 
  • Figure out the comments issue. Either yes or no. But decide and set a policy. 
  • Add a note to the subscriber button alerting readers that we have Facebook and Twitter accounts. 
  • More political coverage, especially with the upcoming elections. 
  • Add a “Today in History – Local and State” 
  • More service club news and events – possibly with pictures of activities 
  • Podcasts – Meet the Candidates  
  • Pictures of check presentations from various organizations to individuals and/or non-profits 
  • Pictures of Student Scholarship Winners 
  • Obituaries – just the names listed of those who died 
  • A column like “Heard Around Town.”  Not gossip, but interesting tidbits, such as, “What D’Amato Construction will do with the iconic Bristol Savings Bank Building” or “We hear that JR Rusgrove is planning to open another restaurant in the old Foodies storefront.”  Stuff like that.   

No doubt our competitor will be paying attention and might even pick up on a few of these ideas. But we are willing to share this so that you are aware of our goals and how you might be part of the solution, and how together we can improve the level of local coverage and develop a new journalism tradition here in town. 

For a first go round we thought that the forum was successful. We look forward to the next one and the one after that. These forums are really shareholder meetings, where our readers/subscribers get to weigh in on our operations, to learn about how we do things and why, and educate each other about next steps. 

This week’s listening/reading assignment: On the Media’s “A 40-acre Promise.” 

“Come Sunday morning” is intended to be a weekly review, a recounting of the past week and an anticipation of week to come. Among its features will be reviews of old and new books, sharing of favorite podcasts, some family news, Bristol events and happenings and issues surrounding education, work and community journalism. He can be reached at dfortier@bristoledition.org.