Since I’m always interested in what’s going on in my community, I set up a Twitter search for ‘Beaufort’ and display that column prominently in my TweetDeck. Normally not much going on: A few references to the Beaufort wind scale, a few random musings about Beaufort, SC, a note or two on Beaufort, NC (That’s Bo-Fort), and one or two mentions of Beaufort Street, where ever that is…
Tuesday during lunch a tweet arrived from @emilyduncan. “Huge Island Vs. Beaufort fight at school today. complete chaos.” I checked the Beaufort Gazette site, and no shock here, there was no mention of the fight. I figured this wouldn’t make the Savannah or Charleston news stations, so I didn’t bother.
The next mention of the event was yesterday morning by @newschannel15. The tweet links to a YouTube video of the fight, clearly taken by a student.
Here’s my question: Why didn’t the Beaufort Gazette pick this story up sooner? The only story I can find was published this morning and is a discussion of the YouTube popularity of the video, not anything about the actual fight.
People have posited that the only for newspapers to survive is to get with the times, branch out into new media, and provide excellent local coverage. With the continuing failure of newspapers, why can’t the Gazette get on board. They used to have a Twitter account, but this hasn’t been updated in a few days. Even when it was broadcasting, they didn’t respond to my questions or @replies.
The paper just consolidated operations with the (Hilton Head) Island Packet. Now, the Packet and the Gazette are the same papers, same content, different mastheads.
Twitter’s free. Other people break the news. The paper can then follow up and publish a real news article. I just don’t get it.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Eric,
Carlotta Ungaro at the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce sent me today the link to your blog article about the school fight. There is a daily local online community newspaper in Beaufort that is going to replace the retreated Beaufort Gazette, you can count on that. You can see it at
http://www.beauforttribune.com
Please give me a ring at 843-278-0140. I would like to talk with you about the school fight and some other things.
Thanks.
George Trask
Editor and Publisher
The Beaufort Tribune
http://beauforttribune.com
843-278-0140
Eric,
I know exactly what you are saying. It seems that local news sources never seems to have good local news. It is always after events or incidents have happened that they are mentioned. I think a huge part of the problem is newspapers do not want to truly adopt blogs, twitter, or social media as a two way conversation. Just a way to spread links. I see the need for good news keeping and the Beaufort tribune does seem to have a good start as long as they keep the conversations in both directions. I started my own local blog Beaufortonian.com in hopes of providing local interest but it is more events and activities then actual news articles since it is my wife and I writing it. Great write-up!