After nearly three weeks without a blog post (I swear I was on vacation for some of that time), this is my second of the day. Watch out.
A couple of tidbits:
- Today is the first anniversary of a fun day around VOSD headquarters: Last year on this day The New York Times ran a front-page story about us and the movement of local nonprofit news outfits. The story changed things for us. For one, we reached a whole new audience here in San Diego that didn’t know about us. And since then my buddy Scott Lewis and I have been fortunate enough to be invited to great discussions around the country to talk about what we do, learn from the smartest people around, and help others create similar organizations.
We here at VOSD are having the time of our lives trying to build an organization that does meaningful stories and engages San Diegans in important conversations. Thanks for making it all possible with your readership and your support.
- I’m putting together an institutional plan right now for how we cover wildfires in the future. We’re proud of our coverage of the 2007 fires but, as a young organization, we were in large part just flying by the seat of our pants to be honest.
I’d like to get your help: I’m interested in hearing if there’s anything that a news organization should provide that wasn’t available during the last two wildfires, or stories you would’ve liked to see get done.
We leave the constant reports of road and school closures and public announcements to those who can do that the best. What we are going to focus on is going out to find the best human and nature stories we can and hold public officials accountable by fact-checking their statements and keeping tabs on their actions.
What else would you like to see get done? Thanks.
- Lastly, we’re not the only ones with a long, drawn-out football stadium search. And we don’t have the only team that’s speculated to covet Los Angeles. Things are erupting in the Twin Cities, too.