Once my retirement party was history and I looked at what to do next, after a few personal matters were resolved, I looked around at how I could volunteer my time and make a difference in the community where I had lived since 1991.
When my twin girls were growing up in Fishers, I subscribed to a daily newspaper, the Noblesville Daily Ledger. I could follow municipal government, as well as the local school board and county government news. It’s always good to know what is happening in the community around you.
Then the media landscape began changing dramatically. The Ledger, which had been publishing for about 100 years, became a 2-day-a-week publication, then stopped publishing. The Noblesville Daily Times made a go of it as a 5-day-a-week newspaper, but fell victim to the 2008 economic downturn.
The Times is still around today but not as a daily newspaper,
The bottom line is this….people living in Fishers had access to regular local news but as the economics of the media business started to change, news sources began to dry up.
That was the media environment I found when I considered starting a volunteer news blog centered on Fishers in January 2012. I had been a journalist from the early 1970s to 1983. Was I too rusty or could a take a leap and go back to covering local meetings and news events?
This little news blog has become much more than I ever expected. But I was thinking the other day – what news sources are available to people in Fishers yearning for local journalism?
Here is a rundown of where people get their Fishers news, other than this news blog.
Current in Fishers….Anna Skinner is the editor of this weekly publication. It has the most penetration of any local news source, because it is mailed to everyone with a Fishers mailing address. Anna works hard to get you the best and latest news. However, Current in Fishers has a couple of challenges. First, the paper is put together 4-5 days (most weeks) before you see it in your mailbox, so the news is a bit dated in many instances when you read it. Second, Current in Fishers relies heavily in feature stories…there is nothing wrong with that, but that limits space for other local news.
The Indianapolis Star….As I started this blog, the Star had no reporter covering the Fishers beat. There had been one, but the newspaper underwent one of its many reorganizations of the editorial staff and only occasionally assigned a reporter to cover happenings in Fishers. Lately, the Star has taken more interest in Fishers. Emma Kate Fittes has been covering the northern suburban education beat and has paid a lot of attention to the Hamilton Southeastern Schools. John Tuohy has been busy covering Fishers on a regular basis, along with some other nearby communities. Tuohy’s most memorable piece so far was all about whether Fishers had become the “no fun city.” As you might imagine, Mayor Scott Fadness took issue with that assertion. All-in-all, the Star has taken more interest in covering Fishers. Let’s hope that continues.
The Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ)….The IBJ started a “North of 96th” beat to cover business and political news in the northern Indy suburbs. Andrea Davis was the first reporter assigned to this beat, then Lindsey Erdody took it over once Andrea made the decision to leave journalism as a profession. Lindsey is moving to coverage of state-wide politics and government. IBJ is in the process of hiring a new North of 96th reporter. The IBJ has generally paid attention to Fishers because of its unique economic development strategy and development as a city. But Fishers is just one of many communities north of 96th Street.
Hamilton County Reporter….The late Don Jellison and his son Jeff started this paper and worked to grow it, in circulation and news content. It is fairly easy to subscribe, you just send a message at their Web site ReadTheReporter.com. I did that about a year ago, and immediately received a message from Jeff Jellison. He was looking for more Fishers content in his newspaper and I was trying to figure out how to better cover county government. That led to a news-gathering partnership between the Reporter and LarryInFishers.com. That’s why you find the Reporter’s content on my blog, and my blog content in the Reporter.
Local Television Stations….With four local television news operations, you will occasionally see coverage of Fishers, but only as news developments determine it.
One of the reasons I started this blog was because Fishers was getting little coverage from other area media outlets in 2012. Things are a little better today, but not where I would like to see it. I do plan to continue this blog, but maybe, just maybe, other media will provide the regular news coverage local residents deserve. Then, I would be able to retire – again. But I don’t see that happening anytime soon.