 "Photo: Paul Chouy; The Daily Texan")
In the turmoil of a constantly changing industry, the Capitol press corps is in flux and trying to find a way to survive in the new technological age.
The group of reporters covering the Texas Capitol news has gone through significant changes throughout the years and is now forced to adjust to a wave of technological advances.
Last week, the San Antonio Express-News cut 75 members of its news staff and left dozens of jobs unfilled, including one of the members of its Capitol bureau.
The decline of one of the largest newspapers in Texas bodes ill for the future of newspapers around the state and the country.
In an e-mail to his staff, editor Robert Rivard said, “Incremental staff and budget cuts, we are sorry to say, have proven inadequate amid changing social and market forces now compounded by this deepening recession. We are undergoing a fundamental and painful restructuring of the newsroom staff.”
Unofficial dean of the Capitol press corps Dave McNeely said the problem the news industry is having is that no one has figured out how to get people to pay for journalism.
McNeely, who teaches a journalism class at UT, covered the Texas Legislature for 46 years since his first session as a reporter for The Daily Texan and has seen the evolution of the press corps.
The press corps began to shrink in the 1990s and is now about half of what it was then. Out-of-town television stations have also begun to abandon Capitol coverage.
“It’s a blow to journalism and journalists, and it’s a shame for the public,” McNeely said. “The more reporters you have looking over things, the more the public is going to get.”
Though many competing newspapers in major cities have floundered, leaving just one major daily paper in each large city, the press has also faced another kind of competition: bloggers.
As newspaper circulation declines, several major papers are heavily promoting their Web sites and starting their own blogs to compete with rival blogs and newsletters.
Harvey Kronberg’s Quorum Report, an online newsletter, posts daily political gossip and explains the inner workings of state government at a quick pace.
“What’s happened is that we’ve expanded our audience a hundred times,” Kronberg said. “A little guy with a couple of computers could now compete with big corporations.”
Web sites have undermined all the institutional ways of getting news, Kronberg said.
Though Kronberg essentially profits from the Internet, he said the state of the news is “terrible.”
Christy Hoppe, Dallas Morning News bureau chief and 19-year veteran said only 7 percent of The Dallas Morning News’ advertising revenue comes from its Web site.
“There is no doubt that newspapers are in hospice care right now, and I don’t know what is going to replace it,” Hoppe said. “Blogs are good for what they are, but the fewer eyes you have covering every aspect of public policy, the fewer stories you are going to see.”
The Morning News has a relatively large Capitol bureau with five staffers and an intern but it is also facing a round of cutbacks next month.
Hoppe said when she started at The Dallas Morning News, she would look at its competing paper, The Dallas Times Herald, with one eye closed because she was afraid that the Herald had scooped the major stories first.
“I used to write a news story and go home at seven o’clock at night, and then it would be on someone’s doorstep in 10 hours,” she said. “Those days are gone. Now, I am blogging, pod-casting and writing for the Web as soon as it happens. Bureaus are now 24/7 operations.”
Hoppe said democracy depends on a free and vibrant press, and there will always be a need for reporters.
“The medium in which they are reporting is still up in the air,” she said.
Gardner Selby, chief political writer for the Austin American- Statesman, said there have been “huge” changes since he covered his first legislative session in 1983 for The Beaumont Enterprise.
“At that time you were more likely to use a pay phone, and now I tweet, I’m on Facebook,” Selby said. “We’re all trying to adjust to social networking and all that implies.”
The Austin American-Statesman has one of the largest Capitol press bureaus, with four full-time reporters and a full-time intern writing about state government.
Though print is the dominant medium of Capitol coverage, the decline in newspaper sales has changed the level of competition.
“Two of the papers I covered the Lege for, the San Antonio Light and the Dallas Times Herald, have folded since I’ve been around the Capitol,” Selby said.
The Internet has contributed to higher quality reporting because there is unlimited space, unlike on a news page, Selby said.
The Austin American-Statesman recently offered buyouts to reporters older than 55 years old who have covered politics for more than 10 years.
Two veteran Capitol reporters, Laylan Copelin and former Capitol Bureau chief Bruce Hight, took the offer.
Brandi Grissom, El Paso Times bureau chief, covered her first Legislative session in 2005 for The Associated Press.
“It’s horrifying to see all my colleagues — extraordinary journalists — lose their jobs,” said Grissom, a former Daily Texan reporter. “It’s sad and scary.”
She said she is usually the sole voice for El Paso, whose residents often feel disconnected from Austin because of the distance, but an online news publication from El Paso has been “keeping her on her toes.”
“Everyone is in the same boat,” Grissom said. “No one can say with 100 percent confidence that they will have their job in six months in the newspaper
industry.”
Grissom maintains a live blog, has an active Twitter account and is trying to learn more multimedia skills. She said the Internet has opened up a constant flow of information.
“I can’t imagine doing my job with a phone book,” she said. “I think for the most part the pluses outweigh the negatives.”
Grissom said she hopes that in spite of the buyouts and layoffs, there is a new generation ready to carry the torch.
“We need somebody to figure out what the new world of journalism looks like and lead the way there,” Grissom said. “There are people who are trying to do that.”
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