Dear friends of inewsource,
We are proud to have played an important role today in the KPBS exclusive about Mayor Bob Filner’s allies calling for his resignation amid sexual-harassment allegations. That role was editing the breaking story and coordinating reporting. It was a team effort, indicative of our relationship with KPBS.
That inewsource/KPBS partnership got national attention this week in a journalism industry report that discussed our innovative approach in digging deep and reaching audiences across television, radio and online. Ours is a model worth watching.
Stay tuned Monday when we unveil the next installment in our ongoing series on special taxes. Find out why homeowners are paying too much and, perhaps, too little. If you haven’t already, check out our searchable map.
Finally, we’re bringing tools into the inewsource wheelhouse that will enable us to share our work in news ways with the latest technology. Read more about that below.
Thank you all for supporting our work. And don’t forget: Tell your friends: Truth matters. Help us find it! Share this email.
— Lorie Hearn, Executive Director | loriehearn@inewsource.org
Adding Value
If you didn’t catch the KPBS exclusive on Mayor Filner, catch it on our website. The reporting will continue tomorrow at 10 a.m. when former councilwoman Donna Frye and others hold a news conference to discuss sexual harassment allegations against the mayor.
As we mentioned above, the unique partnership between inewsource and KPBS was featured in a national study released yesterday called, “News Chops: Beefing up the Journalism in Local Public Broadcasting.”
The study was published by J-Lab, a journalism innovation center based at American University in Washington. D.C. It looks at nine different kinds of relationships that are strengthening the power of public broadcast. They stretch from San Diego and Oregon to Denver, New Orleans and North Carolina.
What sets the inewsource/KPBS partnership apart? We’re independent but interdependent. And we’re committed to each other’s success through joint fundraising.
Here’s the study’s scene-setter:
“Unfettered by competitive pressures and fortified by trust in their brand, local public broadcasters are finding new ways to engage in more local news – especially more investigative and enterprise journalism – than ever before.
“From unprecedented mergers to unique partnerships, from shared workspace to shared reporters, creative approaches are positioning public radio and television stations to step up to new roles in their local news ecosystems. In the process, some are becoming critical linchpins for state and metro-wide news networks.”
You can read the section on inewsource here. Click here for the full report.
Taxes: Too high, too low?
inewsource reporters Joanne Faryon and Kelly Paice continue investigating inconsistencies in the way special property taxes, called Mello-Roos, are applied, and their persistence is achieving results. Their next story will tell you why one San Diego councilmember is calling for an independent audit into at least one of San Diego’s Mello-Roos tax districts. You’ll find it on KPBS radio Monday morning, KPBS TV Monday evening at 5 pm, and KGTV Channel 10 during the 5 p.m. news hour.
ESRI: Mapping the future
inewsource reporter Brad Racino checked out the annual ESRI conference held this week at the San Diego Convention Center.
ESRI (or Environmental Systems Research Institute) is a leading supplier of Geographic Information System software, and its products help visualize data in a way that makes the information clear, concise and understandable. Check out this interactive map of endangered languages to get a feel for what’s coming at inewsource.
Truth matters. Help us find it.