Reporter Launches Online Newspaper

A veteran reporter who was recently laid off just launched his own news gathering venture, an online publication covering Franklin Township.

Bill Bowman's byline is familiar to readers of both the Courier News and the Asbury Park Press. In the introduction to the Franklin Reporter & Advocate, Bowman claims 30 years' experience as a journalist. He has also lived in Franklin Township for more than 25 years. These two credentials are the basis of his decision to become publisher and editor of the online news source.

In substituting "pixels for paper," Bowman acknowledges the changing means of news delivery and readers' preferences for easy access anywhere to information. But he also wants to go back to the local coverage that was the model for newspapers for generations before outlets began consolidating and broadening coverage areas to an unwieldy expanse.

From his inaugural message to readers: "There once was a notion that newspapers, in addition to providing a day-by-day chronicle of life within a specific area, also served as the public record, a place to where someone could turn in five, 10 or 50 years to find out what life was like at a certain time. Today’s corporate-owned media – beholden to investors rather than readers – has largely forgotten that compact, ignoring what they consider mundane topics in favor of chasing trends."

Bowman's news outlet will cover meetings where elected and appointed officials make decisions about taxpayers' money, as well as many other aspects of community life. He also plans to make it a dialogue with readers rather than just a one-way presentation.

I am writing about this because I think Bill has indeed made lemonade out of the sour experience of being laid off at midlife, and also to talk about different styles of hyperlocal coverage. His news outlet will parallel many of the classic functions of a newspaper, offering not only professional coverage but also a place for community groups to announce their events through press releases. There will be advertising and readers will be asked to subscribe at some point.

Plaintalker has a different outlook. I am about a quarter-century older than Bill and not interested in trying to replicate a newspaper with ads and submitted material that has to be processed. It's just me, writing about what I can, given my status as a pedestrian and solo practitioner of news gathering. In another world and time, with more energy and resources, I would have loved to do what Bill is doing. As it is, I often have to decline invitations to cover this or that or to make a brief article out of a flier.

So as printed newspapers continue in what seems to be an inexorable decline, the hometown reader can rest assured that individuals are exploring ways to convey news and information in innovative ways, not all the same. Plainfield has its bloggers and a fledgling online newspaper and now Franklin Township has an online news outlet led by someone of the highest journalistic caliber. All the best to Bill. I often admired his skills when we both sat in the newsroom in Bridgewater. The newsroom is gone, but the spirit of journalism lives on in ways unforeseen just a decade ago.

--Bernice