You can see the future, and it works

August 5th, 2009

The Daily Dispatch of East London, a relatively small newspaper, is experimenting with new media in a way that is showing up their much larger, wealthier colleagues.

Last week, they published Broken Homes: How Eastern Capes Housing Plan Has Failed the Poor , an in-depth investigation into the problems with housing in the Eastern Cape. The full story was published online and then run as a series in the paper over a few days.

The paper used the new media tools well, with powerful videos, graphics, background documentation and timelines, all coherently and engagingly presented. But what set this apart was that it was driven by high-quality reporting which was breaking new ground and commanding the attention of the authorities who were under scrutiny.

We were told that so poor was some of the housing, and so bad the rip-off by some contractors, that the province needed to spend R360-m fixing already-built housing. They had a video interview with housing MEC Nombulelo Mabandla saying that she would not abandon the emerging builders responsible for this – but would rather retrain and try them again.

They told us of people who had to be put up in cardboard shacks because their new houses fell down; of government houses being used as second, holiday homes; of ghost towns emerging as people abandoned the new homes they had waited so long for.

One could click on pictures from seven different towns, to see how things were faring in different places, or on different tabs for different material. In each place, they had videos, a blog account of their visit their, and a map. There was also space to comment on the work.

It was spunky stuff by reporter Gcina Ntsaluba and picture-man Theo Jeptha. But I suspect it is editor and self-confessed geek, Andrew Trench, who should share much of the credit for bold experimentation and a clever use of his limited resources.

The Dispatch is building a reputation. Two years ago, they swept national journalism awards with their work on Frere Hospital. Last year, they did an excellent print and online expose of the killing of Somali’s in their area, including a riveting interview with a jailed killer and an account of spending time living with scared Somalis in the townships. (Full declaration: that venture was supported by our Taco Kuiper Fund for Investigative Journalism).

They also did a great road trip with their staff blogging as they drove around their region. As a result, they now have an interactive map that allows you to click on towns all over the Eastern Cape and read their guide to it.

They are showing up their colleagues, many of whose websites are either half-dead or allow journalism of a standard so low that they would never allow it into their newspapers. That sort of work is probably damaging their brand, rather than growing it.

Rather than sit back and mourn the slow death of newspapers around the world, and the gradual decline of most of ours, at least some journalists are experimenting with the potential of new media to take journalism onto exciting new paths full of potential and thrills. They may not know how they will every pay for online journalism, but they are learning new and fresh ways to tell stories using tools that were not available to journalists before.

Some newspapers are just harvesting as much profit as possible before the internet kills them. Our broadcasters are not doing much, though they are often best placed to exploit their brands and their audiences online.

Perhaps the best lesson from the Dispatch is that it requires vision, commitment and smartness rather than lots of money to experiment and break ground. What they have done is not hugely expensive, but it does require an editor and a newsroom prepared to stretch what resources they have.

If you take a look at Broken Homes, you will see the future, and it works.

*This first appeared in Business Day, 5 August 2009

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism, Print