New life for statehouse reporting? The view from one American state

Abstract

This paper examines news organizations’ shifting editorial and commercial strategies towards statehouse reporting – an important but often neglected form of sub-national journalism in the United States. Through interviews with reporters, editors, and management in one state (Washington), we find that many news organizations are adapting their coverage to better align with transformations in both politics and journalism. The specific strategy an organization adopts, however, depends on its position among statehouse news providers. Established news organizations foreground the impact of policy developments on ‘ordinary’ citizens’ lives in an effort to entice audiences assumed to ignore such news. Their upstart peers, by contrast, target what they see as an underserved niche market consisting of individuals already interested in politics and poorly served by current offerings. Without implying a return to any mythical golden age, or declaring without reservations a bright future, we suggest that these developments evince signs of 'new life’ for statehouse reporting. Our analytical emphasis, moreover, underscores the incentives that guide organizations’ editorial and commercial strategies, a point that can apply to many forms of political journalism around the globe.