best urban reporters
tommy permalink | categories: citizens, county, development, hc bocc, newspapers, tampaby tommy @ 8:46 am
A long time ago, when this blog was just a spot, (not The Spot), Sticks received a link from Otis White at Civic Strategies. CS is a “strategic planning firm that structures public policy solutions.” As part of their research, they came across Sticks, and kindly included it among a list of what they call “urblogs.” Since then, we’ve kept up with them, mainly because they do a really good job at highlighting urban issues around the country.
Anyway, they closely watch many aspects of Urban Journalism, and attempt to rank the “best” newspapers and reporters. The results are in for the first quarter of 2006, and the Tampa Tribune’s Mark Holan was singled out (scroll down 3/4). for his coverage of the Hillsborough County Commission. Here’s what CS had to say:
And then there’s the Tampa Tribune’s Mark Holan, who covers the Hillsborough County Commission. (Tampa is part of Hillsborough County.) Normally, county commissions are pretty dull bodies. Not this one. In recent years, the Hillsborough Commission has been turned into a soapbox for extremists. Holan should be busy this year, since several of the seats are up for election and there’s an effort afoot to create a mayor system for the county. Reformers hope that, with a mayor in charge, commissioners will less likely to grandstand. (With Hillsborough’s luck, though, one of the grandstanders will be elected mayor.)
For a firm covering the entire nation, I’d say these guys have a pretty good read on the pulse of Tampa Bay.
Read previous CS assessments of Tampa Bay:
Tags: citizens, county, development, hc bocc, newspapers, tampa
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May 19th, 2006 at 11:47 am
Holan is definitely one of the better bylines to look for in the Trib, and usually easily found right under a heading that prompts the question “What’s Ronda done THIS time?” Wonder how many times the Times has called him this morning after reading SOF? (Note to Mark: Don’t go!)
May 19th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
‘civic strategies’ is a for-profit consulting and lobbying firm to whose potential benefit it is to polish the apple with as many ‘urban’ reporters as possible around the nation since these same individuals might one day need to be co-opted if the firm is ever hired by the local government the reporter covers.
as such, ‘awards’ from CS, as from any other outside group with a pontential conflict of interest, are not worth the ink they are printed on.
so dont get too excited about this one.
ps to bama: i dont think the times is impressed.
May 19th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
btw guys, covering meetings and taking stenography for ronda storms et al does not require a lot journalistic horsepower, fyi. no knock on holan who is probably a nice guy.
May 20th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
Tough guy taking a swipe at me AND Holan under the safe name Anonymous. At least with my name you can figure out where I’m coming from with my silly little posts! You try covering the Hillsborough County Freakshow if your bosses at the Times will let you. It’s obvious you work there, otherwise you’d say who you are. Say what’s on your mind but leave out the “musky panties” references and you should be fine.