Reporting starts on Bay Area journalism story

It was an odd feeling Monday walking back into the office where I was laid off last year.

I returned to talk with the man who laid me off, Contra Costa Times Executive Editor Kevin Keane, about a story I’m doing for Spot.us on the future of Bay Area journalism and how newspapers are using the Internet to try to gain readers.

Before I get into a little bit about what we talked about and where the Times is headed, I want to first throw out the potential conflict of interest I have in reporting and writing this story. While the story won’t focus entirely on the Times, it will probably be a large part of the story because the Times and the other newspapers that MediaNews owns in the Bay Area have a lot of readers. Keane oversees 11 dailies and 12 weeklies in the Bay Area News Group, with 1.6 million print subscribers.

I worked at the Times for 13 years, as a copy editor and assigning editor. I’ve only known Keane for about two years, when he took over as executive editor after the paper was sold by Knight Ridder to McClatchy for a few hours, then to MediaNews. I wasn’t thrilled with the change in ownership, but enjoyed my job and wanted to stay on there as an assistant metro editor. It was a job I had wanted to do my entire life and I really enjoyed it. If you want to view my resume and see what I’ve done, please check it out.

For me to say that I don’t have any grudges against the Times and that I can’t be impartial in doing this story for Spot.us, is something that many won’t believe. I’m too close to the story I’m covering. So while I may try as hard as I can to keep my reporting and writing impartial, I want to warn readers to be on the lookout for it, and I plan to do my best to keep my opinions out of the story.

One thing that makes that easier for me is that while I don’t agree that I should have been laid off, I do understand the company’s decision and think Keane was fair to me during the process. He’s been nice and helpful since I was laid off in June 2008, and was gracious enough to let me interview him for the story I’m working on.

But it was still odd walking into his office Monday, although he put me at ease and asked how my job hunt was going. Walking into the Times building gave me an eerie feeling, and without a pass card to get into the newsroom, I waited in the lobby for a receptionist who never came and called Keane’s secretary to tell him I had arrived for the interview.  A former co-worker walked by and said hello without stopping to shake my hand or inquire how I’ve been since leaving — and other than that and a quick hello to a friend who works there — Keane was the only other person I talked with. I was nervous and glad to walk out when it was over, and maybe things will be different if I ever return. I’m sure there’s nervousness on both sides.

Much of what Keane discussed with me focused on how he still believes in the survival of print news, and that the online audience that the Times and other Bay Area News Group properties are growing and that both serve different customers. Reliable, local news coverage is its strongest asset and adding more blogs and other ways to reach people online, such as through Twitter, will help spread that news, he said. His main message seemed to be something that I used to tell my reporters — that providing quality, in-depth and local news will attract readers no matter what form it comes in.

To get a feel for his views on the news industry, a transcript of an online discussion he had in December is helpful.

On Monday, he didn’t have any major news on where his newspapers are heading online and how they plan to attract readers. For an update on what the Times is doing or plans to do soon online, he referred me to an online editor who I’m trying to get an interview with. I expect that will offer more specifics.