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Opinion: Reflections On Journalism And Economic Development

By Rob Kaiser, posted Aug 18, 2014

Editor's note: Greater Wilmington Business Journal publisher Rob Kaiser submitted the following column regarding feedback on the article "On the Right Track?" that ran in the Aug. 1 edition. Click here for the article.
 
The best description I've heard of a Business Journal is that it holds up a mirror to the business community and reflects back to readers what is happening.

In nearly any business community, most of that reflection is likely "good news" — businesses expanding, new companies starting, employees being hired and promoted, etc… Some of it will be "bad news" — companies filing for bankruptcy, layoffs, etc...

The reflection also shows how a business community is wrestling with more complex issues, particularly how the region plans to grow and prosper.

Our editorial team recently held up a mirror to our region’s main economic development entity, Wilmington Business Development (WBD). We received a lot of feedback that the story accurately reflected reality and a similar amount of feedback that it was a significantly distorted picture.

I've been in journalism many, many years, and I long ago concluded there’s no "right" way to cover a story. There are many different ways to present what is happening, and I’ll let others judge this effort.

However, I would like to address some of the concerns as well as the story’s bigger issue — how our region hopes to grow and prosper.

First, the concerns:

News vs. opinion — Some people thought the story should have been labeled as opinion.

There’s a phrase journalists use — writing with confidence — that means deep reporting of a subject allows reporters to explain what is happening in a straightforward way because of their accumulated knowledge of the topic.

Like many news articles, this story contained opinions in the form of quotes from people with differing views on the subject, but the rest of the article was backed by reporting, not personal opinions of the reporter.

• The “cartoon” — In retrospect, I think the story’s illustration was a mistake.

While I understand the well-intentioned goal was to show WBD — and specifically CEO Scott Satterfield — driving our region’s economic development train, I think it came across to many people as mocking him and the organization.

Be positive and/or quiet — Several people commented that our publication should be positive and not publish diverging (or negative) views on how we do economic development.

I disagree with this.

As mentioned above, I think our publication is naturally perceived as being “positive” because of how we cover the business community. But there’s a difference between reporting on “good news” and purposely not reporting when there are conflicting views on something as important as how our community can prosper.

I think our region will benefit from having a public discussion on these topics, not keeping different views in the shadows.

Openness in economic development — Obviously groups like WBD can’t disclose information about companies they’re working with on potential deals.

However, these groups can educate the community on how the economic development process works and what we can do to make our region more attractive to growing companies.

Our region is not doing a good job on this. After talking with and surveying nearly 1,000 people in our area, the recently issued Garner Report succinctly stated there is a “low level of awareness of community regarding economic development.”

Unnamed sources — Reporters don’t like to use unnamed sources. Editors question reporters when they turn in stories with unnamed sources. Publishers question editors when they approve the use of unnamed sources.

I think readers should also question the use of unnamed sources in the rare instances when we have them in stories.

In this case, Business Journal editor Vicky Janowski decided (and I agreed) there was a legitimate reason these sources didn’t want their names used in the story — because it could harm their businesses and careers. We felt including their views along with WBD’s perspective gave readers a better understanding of the divergent opinions in the community.

In addition to questioning the use of unnamed sources, I think we should ask ourselves another question: Why are we in an environment where respected, well-informed people in our business community don’t feel comfortable openly sharing their views?

This leads me to the bigger issue — the future of economic development in our region.

New Hanover County should be credited for putting a renewed focus on economic development by ordering the Garner Report and working with the city of Wilmington to jointly address the report’s recommendations.

Now comes the real work.

On Aug. 26, the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners and Wilmington City Council have a four-hour meeting scheduled to discuss and prioritize the recommendations from the Garner Report.

As the discussion begins on specific priorities, I think it’s important to keep in mind three basic needs:

• Leadership — The Aug. 26 meeting is hopefully the start of consistent leadership and follow-through from government and business leaders. We need to develop specific strategies, action items and accountability.

• Focus — The Garner Report recommends several industries to focus on as well as other initiatives. We need to decide what we can achieve in the short-term and long-term and allocate the necessary resources to accomplish them.

• Investment — As the recent article showed with data from competing regions, our community severely under-invests in economic development. We need to develop a business plan that government and business leaders are willing to invest in.

Like the article and the reaction to it, this process will yield divergent views.

The one thing nearly all participants will agree on now is we can do a better job positioning our community to prosper.

Hopefully in the coming years, the Business Journal will be able to reflect back the progress that has been made.

Rob Kaiser is the publisher of Greater Wilmington Business Journal. He can be reached at (910) 343-8600 x204 or [email protected].

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