I was stunned at how many people came to the news media panel last week during the Park City Leadership Symposium. I had guessed there might be 20, maybe? Two other, surely more interesting panels were scheduled at the same time in other rooms at the Blair Education Center. One on faith in leade rship, I mean in the sense of religion, not trust. Not a ton of that right now. This was about community leadership beyond the pulpit. And another panel about Park City’s ties to a sister city in China. Ours was just with the folks behind the sausage making of local news. Endlessly fascinating to us, perhaps, but to viewers, listeners, readers? Another panelist, Isabelle Freiling, is a University of Utah professor studying social media, news media and AI. We could have filled our hour asking her questions. The audience turned out to be closer to 200 than 20. Whoa. It included at least one mayor, along with city and county councilors, among other local leaders. OK, getting their revenge, turning the questions on those at root responsible for people whose business is asking them questions. Hah, fair enough. I’m not sure how illuminating we were with a wide-ranging set of questions in a tight window of time. I tried to keep it short, but I expect I went on. It’s hard on the speaker side to gauge while trying to get a point across or find a good end to an answer and mindful of how much you won’t get to on the topic. I listened, too, also endlessly fascinated with how my news compatriots think, feel and what drives them. We’re friends, but make no mistake, they ain’t telling me when they are on to a scoop. We’re each sharper for the natural rivalry among us, and you are better served for being able to compare coverage, spoiled rotten with three assertive local news organizations in an era of desertification moving a lot faster than climate change. The stark stat here that we never got to in our discussion is this: Since 2000, over 75% of actual, legit journalists in America have vanished. Besides the sewer system we know as social media, this is the root problem. It’s become Bari Weiss’s world, all influencers, Substackers, X snarkers, pundits and “opinion journalists” (uh, huh). Add FOX News turning openly jingoistic, so much for “you decide,” and well, there’s another slice of journalism gone to propaganda. The Wasatch Back is a relative oasis in this moment, then. What I was interested in, the guiding hands in coverage, were well represented with KPCW News Director Ashton Edwards, Town Lift founder Brian Modena and me, though increasingly that’s really my colleague Deputy Editor Toria Barnhart. Our staff would tell you that, I think. If I can hazard core impressions, I viewed Ashton as focused on making sure everyone does their work right and KPCW’s audience understands the care they take, and Brian fixed on the future, especially the AI storm at the gate. Within the context of what we do — tell nonfiction stories rooted in fact — I’m the Cindy Lauper of this group. I want us to have fun, too. This is a ski community, after all. We need all these qualities in our local journalism, I believe. Do it right, think ahead, make this maybe a little more fun than just eating your peas like a good citizen. I am totally biased in this way, but also speaking from long experience in various ski towns and ski town journalism, but I’m super impressed with my compatriots at the other outlets and I’ll happily tell you this community is the best served I’ve seen yet. We each do enough differently to widen the lens of local journalism; compete for the right stories that, yes, overlap, though you’ll inevitably find in one what others missed or didn’t emphasize; and fit cooperatively where that matters, too. I had thought that Aspen reigned as the apex of ski town journalism with its mix of two seven-day papers, a local NPR station like KPCW and the online-only Aspen Journalism, along with two more papers on down the Roaring Fork Valley longer than the drive into Salt Lake City. We’re friendlier and more respectful of each other than Aspen’s tangle of competitors, and I think that makes all the difference, which you can see if you look closely enough. I’m not sure whether this rubs off on us from the ski town declared the friendliest in America, or we’re a positive influence this way, too. Don Rogers is the editor and publisher of The Park Record. He can be reached at [email protected] or (970) 376-0745. The post Journalism Matters: Covering the news in the friendliest ski town appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less