Local news isn’t what it used to be – says John Stremsterfer (pictured), president of the Community Foundation of the Land of Lincoln. As an example, he says up-to-the-second coverage of last summer’s derecho was hard to find. Monday he helped announce “Press Forward,” a philanthropic effort to improve local news,
So is this to encourage investigative reporting or just, for example, cover the city council? Stremsterfer says all of the above.
“I think more journalism will bring more stories and a more informed community,” Stremsterfer said Monday, “so I don’t think there is necessarily any limitation on the stories to be covered. For us, as a funder, we would never want to try to influence that. It’s up to the press to decide what stories to cover, the most important ones, to inform the public.
It’s a nationwide effort, but an endowment from the late Patrick Coburn is funding the Springfield portion of it. Coburn was publisher of the State Journal Register.