A few weeks ago I was invited to an event focused on addressing local media in Camden. The organizers asked me to prepare a few comments and reflect on how to improve media in Camden — and while I didn’t end up speaking at the event, I wanted to share some of those thoughts here. As I reflected on media coverage on Camden, I kept coming back to the same question: what would Camden coverage *designed for Camden residents* look like? 

Let me back up a second to say this. I actually think we’re going through a bit of a renaissance in media coverage of Camden right now. Part of that is relative stability — after years of young reporters cycling through the Camden beat, a few folks have been covering the city for years and have built a deep rolodex of local contacts (and knowledge of local context). I’m thinking particularly of Phaedra Trethan at the CP here, but plenty of others as well. That matters.

And the Murphy-Norcross fight at the state level has led to a remarkable amount of investigative reporting. Local progressive groups, including some Camden activists who have been involved in these conflicts for decades, have become more visible, and these movements are being covered in more detail. Social media has helped with that, as folks have found their voice and community on various platforms. I’m trying to keep these posts short, so I won’t name everyone, but the amount and quality of Camden coverage is at a relative high point of my seven years here. And that’s an important starting point. 

But it’s just a starting point. That attention is a welcome, particularly by local activists who have spent years trying to get deeper, more investigative coverage of the city. But it’s largely driven by the state political context. Camden finds itself at the center of what amounts to a political hurricane in New Jersey — the fight between north and south, the fight between progressive and centrist, the fight between establishment politics and movement politics — New Jersey politics have been mapped onto Camden City, where a controversial tax subsidy program has become the easiest way to demonstrate these fault lines. 

And these are important discussions. But they’re not the same as asking *what would Camden coverage for Camden look like?* Because that coverage focuses on state politics, on progressive movements, on political power players, and often misses a simple lens — what does all this mean for Camden?

That’s not so much a critique as an acknowledgement. I understand that regional newspapers are under tremendous fiscal pressure, and they need to focus on these bigger stories. But when I ask the question of how media coverage of Camden can be better, my answer is to continue to address this issue. Part of the reason that folks are skeptical of news here is that few of the stories are written directly to Camden residents (with notable exceptions!). That creates the equilibrium we’re in now — where local newspapers struggle to find Camden readership, and find themselves more incentivized to frame stories around wider state or political issues. 

I think it’s possible to do both, and I tip my cap to the folks who are already working on this. I think there’s some platforms in the city tackling this head-on, whether it be through social media or local Camden-focused newspapers. I think it can be done through hiring — that part of the benefit of hiring local reporters of color from communities such as Camden is the intuitive understanding of stories that speak directly to residents and have the potential to build readership in new places. And I think existing reporters, as they build relationships in the city, do this naturally. Kudos to those efforts, even if there’s still a long way to go. 

I’d like for the Local Knowledge Blog to play a part in those efforts, even if it’s a small one.

I’ve been soul-searching a fair bit about what I want this space to be. When I started this blog almost 7 years ago (!), folks from around the state told me over and over that Camden was “like a black hole.” The rest of the state didn’t hear about what was going on in the city. It felt like I was one of the only folks connecting the important work going on in the city to the rest of what was going on in the state on important issues. I’m proud of that work. I also see a lot of folks doing it now — often when I sit down to write, there are already statements out by organizations, activists and residents, that are being picked up by media, shared on social media, and beyond. That’s no longer my space in the eco-system. 

So I’m going to something different. I’m going to focus on bringing some of these stories back to their implications for the city. Try to share some of what’s going on with a city-centric perspective. And I say that with humility. When I started the blog, I envisioned a space where Camden folks would submit their own words. And while that’s happened at times, around specific issues, over the years, it hasn’t happened as often as I’d like (if you’re reading this and would like to see more of that, please consider writing a guest post or a regular column!). More often folks have asked me to write about events and issues blending my expertise with the perspective of the city — a perspective they feel too often gets lost. 

I’m not always the right person to do that. But I think it’s worth aspiring to, and that sometimes I’ve been able to do it well. I hope you’ll consider joining me in that effort, whether it be as reader, writer or commenter. 

If you have other thoughts about how to better use this space, or how media coverage can be improved in Camden, go ahead and drop them in the comments. I’d love to hear them!