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'Local, local, local'
Why was our natural disaster virtually ignored by media beyond our region?
The Daily Astorian
Monday, December 10, 2007
Residents of Clatsop or Pacific County, Wash., and even people well outside our region were uniformly amazed
at how the major media ignored the natural disaster here. Readers, viewers and listeners in Portland, Salem and
Seattle were genuinely surprised when they learned Wednesday of the calamity that had occurred.
The Associated Press attempted to contact The Daily Astorian on Monday. On Tuesday, the newspaper's editors
were able to establish cell phone contact with AP's Portland bureau.
The Oregonian was a curious player. On the one hand, the newspaper's president, Patrick Stickel, made cell
phone contact and offered to print The Daily Astorian. On the other hand, the newspaper's coverage of the epic
storm was scant to nonexistent until the week's end.
The mantra in the newspaper business these days is Local, Local, Local. That helps explain The Oregonian's
perspective. Increasingly, it is a Portland newspaper that looks less beyond the city's boundaries than it once
did. One could argue with that, because The Oregonian is the only statewide print publication we have, but
arguing that point probably would not make any difference.
If our region was ignored abroad, our local broadcast media covered us well. Two radio stations stood out in
their 24-hour coverage. Gary Henley's Friday article described the heroic efforts that kept KMUN-FM on the air.
KAST Station Manager Paul Mitchell deserves credit for keeping his station on the air with a constant flow of
disaster information.
KMUN's signal was critical in our calamity, because of its reach - to Tillamook, Clatskanie and the Long Beach
(Wash.) Peninsula. Communities the size of Astoria and counties the size of Clatsop and Pacific do not typically
have community radio stations or daily newspapers.
It is lamentable that media beyond our counties' boundaries paid us scant attention. But from our own media we
can count on local, local, local.
Copyright, 2007 The Daily Astorian
Why was our natural disaster virtually ignored by media beyond our region?
The Daily Astorian
Monday, December 10, 2007
Residents of Clatsop or Pacific County, Wash., and even people well outside our region were uniformly amazed
at how the major media ignored the natural disaster here. Readers, viewers and listeners in Portland, Salem and
Seattle were genuinely surprised when they learned Wednesday of the calamity that had occurred.
The Associated Press attempted to contact The Daily Astorian on Monday. On Tuesday, the newspaper's editors
were able to establish cell phone contact with AP's Portland bureau.
The Oregonian was a curious player. On the one hand, the newspaper's president, Patrick Stickel, made cell
phone contact and offered to print The Daily Astorian. On the other hand, the newspaper's coverage of the epic
storm was scant to nonexistent until the week's end.
The mantra in the newspaper business these days is Local, Local, Local. That helps explain The Oregonian's
perspective. Increasingly, it is a Portland newspaper that looks less beyond the city's boundaries than it once
did. One could argue with that, because The Oregonian is the only statewide print publication we have, but
arguing that point probably would not make any difference.
If our region was ignored abroad, our local broadcast media covered us well. Two radio stations stood out in
their 24-hour coverage. Gary Henley's Friday article described the heroic efforts that kept KMUN-FM on the air.
KAST Station Manager Paul Mitchell deserves credit for keeping his station on the air with a constant flow of
disaster information.
KMUN's signal was critical in our calamity, because of its reach - to Tillamook, Clatskanie and the Long Beach
(Wash.) Peninsula. Communities the size of Astoria and counties the size of Clatsop and Pacific do not typically
have community radio stations or daily newspapers.
It is lamentable that media beyond our counties' boundaries paid us scant attention. But from our own media we
can count on local, local, local.
Copyright, 2007 The Daily Astorian
