Ithaca, N.Y. — Journalists are always running around demanding transparency from others — politicians, school officials, police, etc. So it seems only fair for us to be even more open than the institutions we are tasked with scrutinizing.
With that in mind, today we’re introducing what we hope will prove a monthly feature — assuming it’s of interest to readers — in which we provide a few updates about the state of the Ithaca Voice and solicit feedback from readers.
This won’t just help you learn about The Voice: Getting feedback from readers will also guide our coverage and, therefore, help us become a better community newspaper.
Among the topics we’d like to know more about: What are we covering too much? Too little? Are there certain kinds of stories, or photo galleries, you’d like to see more often?
Was there one story in particular you thought we handled poorly? That we handled well? Do you have questions about how The Voice is funded? Where we’re going? When we plan on hiring Brian Williams? (Just kidding on that one.)
Feel free to comment below, write on our Facebook page or email me at jstein@ithacavoice.com. I’ll be available to answer questions until around 6 p.m. on today. You can also email me at anytime.
Editor | Ithaca Voice
In the meantime, here are 3 updates about the Ithaca Voice:
1 — Student fellowships
We’re excited to announce that Faith Meckley and Noreyana Fernando, both students at Ithaca College, are working this semester in paid positions as Ithaca Voice fellows.
They join Zac Peterson, a Cornell student, who has been working on a semi-weekly basis as an Ithaca Voice photographer for a good deal longer.
All three have done great work already. You can see some of Peterson’s work here; some of Meckley’s work here; and some of Fernando’s work here.
2 — New reader membership campaign
The Voice is in the process of launching a membership campaign that we hope will both allow us to hire a bigger staff and provide new benefits to readers.
We’re not sure what this will look like, but are looking at membership models from around the country. If you have suggestions for what you’d like to see out of a membership campaign, please let us know.
More on this to come.
3 — Staffing difficulties continue
Despite the addition of the student fellows, there are still only two full-time Ithaca Voice staff members: 1) Editor Jeff Stein, 2) Director of Video Advertising Mike Blaney.
Of course, only employing one full-time editorial staff member and one full-time business staff member puts a major strain on our ability to cover Ithaca and Tompkins County as thoroughly as we’d like. Fortunately, we are lucky to have a number of partnerships that allow us to expand our reach.
That work comes from Brian Crandall’s “Ithacating in Cornell Heights” blog; the Big Red Sports Network; student articles for the magazine Ithaca Week; and occasional guest blogs from various other parts of the Ithaca Internet.