Newspaper Journalism and the Changing Publics of Multimedia Cities

Scott Rodgers Department of Geography, King’s College London, United Kingdom rodgers_scott@hotmail.com

Introduction

Metropolitan (or local, regional) newspapers have oftenbeen seen as intrinsic media in the political constitutionof cities. Amongst his writings on human ecology, RobertE. Park (1925) – a former journalist (see Lindner, 1996)– wrote vividly on the connections between mediacommunications, urban knowledge and the politics ofcities. He saw the city newspaper as a kind of naturalcommunicative emergence that reproduced a village-likecommunity, countervailing the increasing complexity andsize of early 20th Century American cities. For Park, notonly did newspapers make these large cities knowable,they also uniquely mobilized the city as a governablespace and social-political body (see also Barth, 1980,Fritzsche, 1996, Nord, 2001, Wallace, 2005). Yet if suchtalk of urban community ever designated actuallyexisting phenomena, such a communal urban public isnow undoubtedly being reworked. Various literatures oncontemporary cities now commonly refer to therelational, mobile, transnational, and connected natureof cities as social and political spaces (e.g. Jacobs andFincher, 1998, Graham and Marvin, 2001, Amin andThrift, 2002, Sieverts, 2003, Amin, 2004). Moreover,the longstanding and continuing proliferation of newmedia and communications are inherent technologiesand practices changing such urban spaces. Indeed, toview contemporary metropolitan newspapers as Parkdid would surely be anachronistic. Yet where does thisleave their political status in the multimedia city?

In my own recent doctoral research (Rodgers, 2006) Iaddress only some dimensions of this very big question.My study considered the changing political geographies ofthe Toronto Star, specifically via the urban geographicalimaginations and spaces entailed in the organization andpractices of political journalism. Deploying an ethno-graphically focused methodology (participant obser-vations, interviews, content tracking and documentaryresearch), and fusing cultural geography, media sociology,practice theory and organizational studies, the researchapproached the metropolitan newspaper somewhatdifferently in relation to past urban research. Mostresearch across interdisciplinary urban studies has seennewspapers as variously involved in urban politics alongone of two pathways: theories about the local politicaleconomy of newspapers (e.g. Logan and Molotch, 1987);or, analyses of the urban representations produced bynewspapers (e.g. Parisi and Holcomb, 1994). Thealternate path taken in my research emphasized howintersections of social practices and material arrange-ments (cf. Law, 1994, Schatzki, 2002, Latour, 2005)continuously and heterogeneously assembled the TorontoStar as a media organisation oriented to the politics ofToronto and its region. This was a metropolitan news-paper composed of invoked ‘history’ and ‘tradition’ in thecity, of the imaginative geographies of editors andmanagers, of the hybrid political sites of beat reporters,columnists and editorialists, and more.

ition of the poster that was presented at the ESF conference ‘Cities andctives on Urban Identities in a Mediatized World’, held 25-29 October

eden. This comprises a brief survey of one major theme of the doctorale: the future orientations of editors and managers – the attempts made(and economic) standing of the Toronto Star into the present and near’. While the mantra everywhere was and is of the dying newspaper,e ways that (relatively well resourced and obdurate) media may becomeansforming the future communicative spaces of cities.

Below I present a rendMedia: Cultural Perspe2006 in Vadstena, Swwork summarized abovto project the political future ‘multimedia cityconsidered here are thactive participants in tr

ating urban subjectivities/identities

The Toronto Star is an exemplarymetropolitan newspaper, orient-ed strongly towards its urban-region. A celebrated, longtimeeditor was noted for his re-quirement that Star reportersapproach every story with thequestion: what does it mean forMetro (Toronto)? The newspaperwas arguably responsible for therecent emergence of ‘GreaterToronto Area’ (or GTA) as a termand geography of everydayusage. The Toronto Star, in otherwords, had enrolled the Torontourban region as a reading public,as well as lucrative mediamarket.

udience-orientation and business model were afoot. The Toronto audience was working longerrbs/exurbs, commuting long journeys. There were two-income families, single-parent families,uch later stages in the lifecycle. Youth, subscribers of the future, were apparently uninterested inot to mention the dramatic increase in the ethnic diversity of the Toronto region. Along with thisg newer-news media. Drive-to-work and drive home radio, 24-hour news, free commuter

ebsites and web blogs – a differentiated and mobile ‘instant news’ environment for a city regiony and mobility.

1 Articul

Yet threats to this ahours, living in subufamilies forming at mnewspaper reading. Nwere the proliferatinnewspapers, news wof increasing diversit

It’s a cultural change in some ways … we are the metropolitan newspaper … in this region, metropolitan region. So we have to be really, really good on urban issues … so, thinking about content, the nature of the content, … the execution of what we want, and the presentation of it, which is much more important that it was before. (Editor-in-Chief)

.. the 905 (suburbs) will increasingly define how the entire metropolis lives and acts … If we care about reflecting our community then we … have a responsibility to see the broader picture. (City Editor)

The theory is that what we want to do is … push down authority, and … the generation of news … I personally believe in the philosophy of journalism, that the best stories are going to come from the reporters (City Editor)

… it’s important to … have one medium where most people, or a good number of people, in the community, make reference to, and follow. So that they’re part of the same conversation. (Editor-in-Chief)

The immigrant experience in this country has changed … we try to reflect that in the way we interact with out readers … (Publisher)

Such transform ns were a majorconcern for e s and managers.Though the stra es deployed to dealwith their em ng dilemma weremany, one over ing strategy was tomake adjustme to the daily flow ofwork, drawing o periments at othernewspapers. Ed hoped to spur thecreative divers of their writers; tostep back and ‘ en’ authority acrossthe newsroom. e City Department,‘teams’ focuse long topical areaswere created (e New Toronto’, ‘GTAPolitics’). Atte ng to make thenewspaper apsubjectivities –underwrite comeditors tried tvoices of the To

atioditortegiergiarchnts n exitors

ities flatt In thd a.g. ‘

mpti

peal

whilemon

o enronto

across diverse at the same time urban identity –liven the diverse Star.

want the graphic to be almost like, not re-g the story, but, telling another part of the story esn’t really fit as part of the narrative, but can be tter visually. (Deputy City Editor)

phic journalist, I mean, you know, if you’d said that even five years ago, uh, people would have laughed. Uh, it’s not funny, (laughs)) it’s actually, I mean you can see it. (City Editor)

ics are) a way of providing … entry points into or giving people information in a quick way, or sing things … (City Editor)

d to push occasionally for, you know, whole should basically just be graphics. (Assistant City

ctations are changing in terms of quality … the he context, the implications of stories … but also entation, in terms of the design quality. Um, you he younger readers in particular, I think, … have ore of a magazine sensibility. Their expectations,

s of design, are very different than people who with older fashion newspapers. (Editor-in-Chief)

… a magapaper means, more emphasis on photography, more time spent in the writing process and editing, more attention, better attention to layout and the look of it. (Sunday Editor)

visual presentation often meant asse-mbling new techniques and tech-nologies for visualizin he city. Charts,graphs, diagrams, ‘inf raphics’, integ-rated page display, tist renderingsand so on.

g togar

2 Visualizing the city

… you retellinthat dotold be

The gra

(Graphstories,juxtapo

I’ve triestories Editor)

… expedepth, tthe presknow, tmuch min termgrew up

A major facet of appealing to diverseurban publics was the demand formore sophisticated visual present-ation. Market surveys and focusgroups, trade literature, and journal-ism conferences had all told editors ofa rising ‘magazine sensibility’. This wassomething particularly projected foryounger audiences, for whom visualityand design were seen as paramount.With a major staple of Toronto Starcontent being urban coverage, theintroduction of such new forms of

The most overt and experimental attempt at magazine techniques was a newly redesignThe Sunday edition had traditionally remained the ‘forgotten’ weekend edition in relflagship edition on Saturday. Yet as a weekend paper it had a lengthy lead-time (a week oavailability of page space (due to less advertising take-up). Sunday was an ideal editioexperimental ‘magapaper’ in early 2005. Full-page photos, liberal use of art and gracontextual feature stories. While the Sunday edition continued to be something of an excintroduced one way to a possible future for the Toronto Star.

The rNew approaches to page design Examples of ‘Infographics’

ed Sunday Toronto Star.ation to the voluminousr more), and a generous

n to re-launch as a newphics, and longer, moreeption, it simultaneously

edesigned Sunday ‘magapaper’

3 Urbanizing digital space

The translation of print-based newsmedia to web-based platforms isoften characterized as a next-to-inevitable future for newspapers. Yetsuch a translation is replete withtensions and paradoxes. As a mediaform, metropolitan newspapers havebeen distinguished by tailoring theircontent to a diverse urban-regionalaudience. While internet technologyoffers a potentially global audience,metropolitan newspapers delineatetheir audiences by the fact that theyshare a more local turf: the reader-circulation geography defined by thecity and its surrounding region. Tosome extent, then, moves by theToronto Star or other metropolitan

Early website – December 1996 11 September 2001

February 2006 (wipodcasts and othe

newspaperstheir contencould involv‘urbanizing’

th added blogs, r new features)

The future? (next major re-launch planned for late 2006)

to display and circulatet via internet technologye (as it has so far) anof digital space.

I think that we are gonna havpoint where we start embracinmore actively, and that we staperhaps even our principle me(Publisher)

I would argue in a world of minformation, … and in a worlddegree, everybody can be a jobecomes harder and harder towhat isn’t, that the true reportediting of this mass of informais accessible and manageable fhave as much value, or more v

Can we create a situation whein purchasing, you know, kindto our content, which is the ne

… we lean toward our traditiocertain extent. The newspaperanything. They’re careful abouwould say a lot of newspaper They have their tools availablepossibilities, but they keep a fa(Senior Editor, Internet)

It is still local. It’s a little less loperhaps. (Senior Editor, Intern

‘Translation’ is an appropriate term to describe a move to aweb-based platform because of the consequences of theinternet to the form and pacing of news content. The currentversion of the Toronto Star web edition mixes longer,contextual content prepared for the print edition withcontinuous postings of breaking news. And these two typesof content interplay with one another: breaking news from awire service might be posted moments after it is released; areporter might then follow up with a longer related story forthe print edition; and a web reporter might further enhanceor expand the print edition story with information or anglesthat could not be assembled by the print deadline. Aninternet-only metropolitan newspaper would potentiallyentail a more complex and deeper change to city-focusedcoverage, where the timings of publication are adjustablethroughout the day, and presentation and placement ofcontent could shift just as rapidly as editors might makechanges. Editors at the Toronto Star, however, deliberately retreatedfrom implementing any truly significant moves towards aninternet newspaper. For one, the existing technologiessupporting the internet as well as monitor displays greatlyrestricted the usage of graphics and advanced pagepresentation that were concurrently being developed for theprint edition. Linked to such visual limitations werecomparative limits to advertising display possibilities. Butperhaps the deepest source of reluctance for an online-onlymetropolitan newspaper was in maintaining a space for theauthority of professional journalism in the politics of the city,against the potentially anarchistic character of internet-based communication.

e to get ourselves to the g (the internet) much rt thinking of it as being ans of publication...

ore and more in which, to some urnalist, and therefore it know … what’s true and ing function, … and the tion into some form which or people, … is gonna alue …(Publisher)

re advertisers are interested of, essentially adjacencies wspaper model. (Publisher)

n as a newspaper to a doesn’t just print t what they print. And, I websites do they same. to them, they have the irly tight rein on them.

cal than the paper et)

01) Communities of journalism: a history of spapers and their readers. University of Illinois and Chicago.

. Holcomb (1994) Symbolizing place: journalistic e city. Urban Geography 15, 376-94.

5) The natural history of the newspaper. In R.E. gess and R.D. McKenzie (eds.), The city: r the investigation of human behavior in the urban niversity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 80-98.

2006) New geographies of the metropolitan ploring spaces of urban political journalism at the ing's College London, London (unpublished PhD le from author).

2002) The site of the social: a philosophical constitution of social life and change. Penn State

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