1. State Capitol Beat
Reporting
It’s a thin line
between reporting
and democracy

2. 

3. In The Beginning
 ’60s, ’70s, ’80s-era politics make state capitol
reporting popular
 Open-government reform, papers had statewide
presence
 Investigative/Watchdog journalism
 “In the ’60s and ’70s you could stay on top of a lot
of American politics and government by having
great Washington Bureau” – Robin Toner, chief of
correspondents, New York Times
 Newspapers were flourishing
 Morning/afternoon publications
 Readership still high
 Big advertising = Big budgets

4. In The Beginning
 State capitols were well covered
 Statehouse reporters among the elite
 1981 – Albany’s Legislative Correspondents
Association had 59 members from 31 news
organizations (Peters, 2008)
 Committee once decided who would get seats
inside main New York capitol press room versus
seating in outer offices (Peters, 2008)
 1970s-1980s – All 20 of Iowa’s state capitol press
seats full during crucial votes (David Westphal)
 Mid-1980s – Detroit capitol press corps had as many
as 25 newspaper reporters alone (Layton & Walton, 2008)

5. The Beginning Of The End
 Newspaper readership begins steady
decline, ad dollars go with it
 Industry began to plateau
 Readership – along with circulation numbers –
actually started dropping in 1970s, further
decrease in late 1980s and 1990s (Shaw, 1989; Koch,
1998)
 Afternoon newspapers thing of the past
 Even TV, radio see declining audience
 Shift in coverage of hard-hitting news to
soft, lighter news, hyper-focused (Jost, 2006)

6. Trends In Recent Years
 What used to be a lucrative business, tough
competition for well-rounded, informative local/ state/
national news coverage is weakening (Steiger, 2007)
 Newspapers being bought out by larger media
conglomerates, companies merging
 2007 – News Corp. led by Rupert Murdoch, took over
Wall Street Journal and its publisher, Dow Jones & Co.
 2007 –Sam Zell, a real estate entrepreneur, bought out
the Tribune Co., taking over Los Angeles Times
 Newsrooms are shrinking
 2005 – Roughly 2,000 positions slashed at newspapers
across the nation (Jost, 2006)
500 positions at the New York Times Co.

75 positions at the Philadelphia Inquirer

25 positions at the Philadelphia Daily News


7. What Does That Mean For State
Capitol Reporting?
 As newsrooms, budgets get cut so does the statehouse
press corps
 Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors: membership
declines from 380 in 2006 to 250 in 2008
 AJR: Full-time state capitol reporters fall from 543 in 2000
to 510 in 2002
ACRE reports in 2007, number down to 407

 Iowa: 20 press corps reporters drops to 3-4
 New York: New York Sun, Staten Island Advance, Post-
Standard, Daily Gazette of, Times Herald-Record all
removed statehouse reporters from Capitol since 2007 (Peters,
2008)
Albany’s legislative Correspondents Association: Falls to 51 members

from 29 organizations in 2001, to 42 members from 27 organizations
in 2008
 Detroit: 25-member press corps drops to 15 in 1998 (Layton &
Walton, 1998)

8. What Does That Mean For State
Capitol Reporting?
 California: LA Times/Sacramento Bee cut
back
 Dan Walters sees 25-33 percent shrinkage in
state capitol press corps in last few years
 Sacramento Bee: 1/3 shrinkage
 According to Walters, 12 would be magic number
for the Bee’s Capitol bureau

9. FT = Full-time reporters
Current Figures: Session help? = Does paper add one or
more full-time staffers for legislative
session?
AJR Status = Is staffing up, down or
unchanged since 2003?
ILLINOIS--Down

CALIFORNIA--Down
 Paper / FT / Session help? / Status
Paper / FT / Session help? / Status Chicago Tribune / 2 / Y / Down
Los Angeles Times / 7 / N / Up Chicago Sun-Times / 1 / N / Unchanged
San Francisco Chronicle / 2 / N / Down Gatehouse Media / 3 / N / Down
Orange County Register / 1 / N / Down Daily Herald / 2 / N / Unchanged
Sacramento Bee / 10 / N / Unchanged Rockford Register Star Ga / 0 / N / Down
San Diego Union-Tribune / 2 / N / Unchanged Pantagraph / 0 / N / Down
Press-Enterprise / 1 / N / Unchanged News-Gazette / 0 / N / Down
Fresno Bee / 1 / N / Unchanged
Record (Stockton) / 0 / N / Down NEW YORK--Down

Bakersfield Californian / 0 / N / Down Paper / FT / Session help? / Status
Ventura County Star / 1 / N / Unchanged New York Times NY / 3 / N / Up
MediaNews Newspapers / 3 / N / Down Daily News / 4 / N / Up
Gannett News Service / 1 / N / Unchanged Newsday / 1 / N / Down
Copley News Service / 0 / N / Down New York Post / 2 / N / Unchanged
Buffalo News / 1 / N / Unchanged
Watertown Daily Times / 1 / N / Unchanged
FLORIDA--Down

Syracuse Post-Standard / 1 / N / Unchanged
Paper / FT / Session help? / Status
Staten Island Advance / 0 / N / Down
Herald/St. Petersburg Times / 5 / Y / Down
Daily Gazette / 0 / N / Down
Sun-Sentinel / 1 / N / Down
Times Union / 3 / N / Up
Tampa Tribune / 1 / Y / Down
Ottaway News Service / 0 / N / Down
Palm Beach Post / 1 / N / Down
Gannett Newspapers G / 3 / N / Unchanged
Orlando Sentinel / 1 / N / Down
Record / 0 / N / Down
Fla. Times-Union / 1 / N / Down
Post-Journal / 0 / N / Down
Daytona Beach News-Journal / 1 / N / Down
Tallahassee Democrat / 3 / N / Down

10. What Does It All Mean?!
“There are fewer and
fewer people and the
amount of information
they are collecting and
the quality of it has gone
down so much that
people don’t really know
what’s going on up in the
Capitol.”
– Hannah-Beth
Jackson, former
assemblywoman

11. What Does It All Mean?!
“The day to day coverage
of what’s happening is
being covered to a
certain extent. What’s
missing is the time doing
that investigative stuff,
where the icing is.”
– Dan Walters,
Sacramento Bee columnist

12. Statehouse Reporting And
Democracy
 Relationship with the public:
 Agenda-setting
 People often consider topics covered by the
media to be important in American politics
The more state politics is covered, the more

heightened that perception is (Cooper, 2007)
“The press may not be successful much of
the time in telling people what to think, but
it is stunningly successful in telling its
readers what to think about.”
– Bernard Cohen

13. Statehouse Reporting And
Democracy
 Relationship with public officials:
 Politicians use media to learn what the public’s
wants, needs (Herbst, 1996)
 Politicians use media to further their agendas
(Cook 1998)
 Method of communication
 Connect with the constituents

14. Statehouse Reporting And
Democracy
 Symbiotic Relationship:
 Lawmakers need media to achieve policy goals
(Cook, 1989; Kedrowski, 1996)
 In turn news media need lawmakers, have
influence in the policy process
 The Muckraking Model by Molotch, Protess, and
Gordon (1987)

15. Statehouse Reporting And
Democracy
“The appetite for content is as strong as its ever been,
particularly with Schwarzenegger in that role and particularly
with the state in a financial crisis.”
– Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee columnist
“In a democracy where people make choices, it’s important
they make good choices or well-informed choices”
– Hanna-Beth Jackson, former assemblywoman
“It’s discouraging, because there’s just so much power in
the state government … (If newspapers aren’t reporting) it
deprives journalism of one of its sources of legitimacy: to
be that watchdog. And it’s not as if we’re functioning in a
transparent environment. People are working hard to
conceal stuff.”
– Evan Cornog, associate dean at Columbia University School
of Journalism

16. The Future of Statehouse
Reporting
 Non-profit
organizations
 Pew Center on
the States
 Public Policy
Institute of
California

17. The Future of Statehouse
Reporting
 Internet outlets
 The Capitol Morning
Report (CA)
Published weekdays,

legislative play-by-
play
Subscription-based

 Capitol Alert
Free, update

frequently
 Pension Tsunami
Niche news about

state’s pension
issues