Valleynews.com Community Journalism Comes to an End at the Los Angeles Daily News

The Los Angeles Daily News is ending its agreement with YourHub, the company that provided the software for Valleynews.com.

According to Daily News Editor Carolina Garcia, a new agreement might be made with the online company Pluck to fill the void created by the decision to end Valleynews.com.

The Daily News had been offering the incredible opportunity to community journalists who wanted to share stories that weren't gaining publicity. Valleynews.com was a cutting-edge program that made a difference to the San Fernando Valley community since 2006.

Through Valleynews.com stories were being posted about many topics including an important cemetery closure, organizations supporting our troops and veterans, neighborhood watch meetings, politicians helping the community, children with disabilities playing soccer, wheelchair access being created, theatre reviews, academic achievements, national awards being received by local residents, school programs, the gift of organ donation, and a variety of personal, heartfelt reflections about life and death.

Mark Kellam, former editor of Valleynews.com, was devoted to community journalists throughout the run.

"I think it's so important to get stories about everyday people into the newspaper. Valleynews.com was a great way to get those stories out to readers. Stories such as the woman turning 100 years old or the couple celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary or the Boy Scout whose Eagle project does so much good for local residents or the activities that neighborhood councils do to make their communities better places to live." Kellam added, "I believe strongly in those stories and that is why I stayed until the end."

Dennis P. Zine, Los Angeles Councilman for the Third District, was saddened to hear the news.

"I am disheartened that Valleynews.com will be going offline in the very near future. Valleynews is a unique venue for community members to share their personal stories and the 'good news' that larger papers tend to gloss over," Zine reminded. "This forum created a space that was truly localized and promoted community activism throughout the region. I think it is a shame that we are going to lose such a valuable commodity fondly known as the Valley Hub."

One of the highest profile journalists on Valleyews.com was Lisa Burks, who believes the opportunity had a great impact on the community.

"Speaking from my own experience, for the hundreds and hundreds of people personally affected by the closure of Grand View Memorial Park, it was huge. They have bookmarked my blog at Valley News and relied on getting information about what's going on with the public visitations and legal issues surrounding the property where the remains of their loved ones remain behind locked gates. It's the entire point of reporting news, in my opinion. It has been an emotional experience for me as a journalist and for readers who feel left in the dark as newspaper budgets shrink along with regular coverage of a top community story," Burks said. "While it's always a thrill to see one of my Valley News articles making print in the Daily News, what meant more to me was knowing that readers hungry for updates and who were not regular internet users, were able to get information that was important to them, that the community was being served."

Burks says that the newspaper business model is antiquated in today's culture of 24-hour news cycles on television and online, and community reporting was one way to try to solve that problem.

"There is no way for staff reporters to adequately cover a community on a grassroots level particularly when newspapers keep laying off good journalists. Community reporting by citizen journalists who are knowledgeable about the their neighborhoods and care about sharing important information, gladly volunteering their time and skills by the way, has supplemented that gap," Burks explained. "But as much as we'd like to think that reporting 'news you can use' is a worthwhile endeavor, the bottom line is that if it doesn't bring in enough advertising revenue, it goes away. I find that completely disheartening, but at least I can continue to serve the community on my own website, which is what I fully intend to do."

Another popular writer on Valleynews.com was Jackie Houchin, who covered unique stories while specializing in theatre reviews.

"I've enjoyed the Daily News' experiment in 'Citizen Journalism' called Valleynews.com. I especially liked it when there was a separate insert section for my stories within the print newspaper. It was exciting to see my work in print, almost on a weekly basis. It was a little discouraging when they went to only one story in the regular newspaper," Houchin admitted. "I think writing and posting stories, articles and reviews on Valleynews.com has encouraged and promoted me as a writer. My name is becoming familiar in various arenas because of my postings, and I've even been offered writing and photo work by people who have seen my articles. I received a lot of subtle tips and encouragement from editor Mark Kellam about editing, emphasizing points, and being concise and accurate in my stories. I've also learned techniques about posting photos. It was nice when he featured my reviews and articles on the Valleynews.com site. Writing for Valleynews.com allowed me to develop several emailing lists. I send links to my stories to these, which increases my exposure and extends the story's coverage. I will be sorry to see it go."

Woodland Hills resident and writer Danielle Fairlee viewed Valleynews.com as an important outlet for community groups that rarely received coverage by local news outlets.

"It gave Valley residents an opportunity to learn about church and school events, small plays, and perhaps best of all, ordinary citizens making a difference in their neighborhoods. Considering the cutbacks and layoffs at both daily newspapers in Los Angeles, it is virtually certain that neighborhood news will receive less coverage. So community organizations and nonprofits will have to become very savvy about the Internet and turn to social networks like Myspace and Facebook to get the word out about their news and events," Fairlee said. "On a personal note, I enjoyed flexing my citizen-journalist muscle this past summer to write about my kids' shows at the Teenage Drama Workshop at Cal State Northridge. It gave me great joy to lend some credence to their hard work. These were shows that would probably never be featured on the front page of the LA Times Calendar section, but the kids put in just as much hard work and heart as their professional counterparts. I think it meant a lot to the cast and crew to see a mention of their shows on Valleynews.com, and ultimately in the Daily News."

Blogger and writer Fronnie Lewis, also known as F. Leegh Lewis, credits Valleynews.com for providing her start as a blogger and she'll always appreciate the opportunity.

"I wrote my first blog for Valleynews.com back in February of 2007. I quickly discovered blogging was a comfortable fit for my writing style. It soon became a passion of mine," Lewis said. "There are a lot of writers in the area and Valleynews provided a good place to showcase their talent. I've read some blog posts and stories on the website that were just as interesting and professional as those found on high-profile websites or in newspapers and magazines."

Burks remains grateful for the opportunity to write stories.

"I want to commend the Daily News for attempting to utilize the citizen journalist program, and for keeping it running for as long as they did. Countless writers gained exposure for stories that they were passionate about, and untold numbers of readers benefited as well. In particular, Jason Kandel, who recruited me in 2006 and Mark Kellam, who has been running the ship single-handedly for quite some time now, both embody what I believe to be true journalists. They are heroes to me; they got it. They understood the importance of the relationship between a newspaper and the communities it covered, and trusted the writers they worked with to be professional and responsible. That means a lot," Burks noted. "I hope some day someone will figure out how to revamp the program, because it's a cause that I believe in whole-heartedly and would participate in again."

Valleynews.com writers, bloggers and community journalists are being advised to personally archive articles and postings before the end of the November, when the website is expected to go offline.

To follow the continued writings by Lisa Burks visit www.lisaburks.com.

Fronnie Lewis also continues to keep readers informed through her website www.awritersgroove.com.

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