An Immodest Proposal: Governments Should Have Their Own Newsrooms

It’s time for agencies to move beyond marketing and embrace storytelling that acknowledges the trade-offs, downsides, and complexities of government work

It could happen. It should happen.

In the complex arena of local governance, where every decision carries the weight of public impact, the flow of accurate, transparent information is essential. Yet, as traditional news outlets dwindle and the lines between news and advocacy blur, citizens often find themselves navigating a landscape where vital details are obscured or altogether absent. To bridge this gap, it’s time for local governments to take a bold step forward: creating their own newsrooms. By doing so, they can ensure the full story — complete with its trade-offs, downsides, and complexities — is told, fostering informed decision-making and genuine public engagement.

A growing number of public agencies have robust communications teams that produce outstanding video content, social media posts, and website materials. That’s undeniably a good thing. However, I believe the time is ripe for these same teams to ensure they’re not just acting as public relations firms, always accentuating the positive to garner support for agency projects and programs.

The truth is every big hairy project — and even some small ones — have their pain points. Agencies should be just as upfront about these as they are about the benefits that will come when a project is completed, or a budget is approved. Agencies need to tell the full story. It may seem counterintuitive, but being upfront about the pain and suffering will make decision-making easier for elected leaders, not harder. Why? Because telling the truth — the whole truth — enhances credibility. People are more likely to follow leaders they trust.

“We need to show people the full spectrum of what we do, how hard it is, and how complex it is,” says Jacque Lambiase, the TCU communications professor who runs the Certified Public Communicator (CPC) program.

Jacque has helped train nearly 300 public communicators in the CPC program over the past 10 years. She’s as tuned in and curious about local government and school district communications as anyone I know.

“Do we want to offer the public just surface information? I don’t think so,” she said. “Things are messy. Things are complex. I mean, the reason the public debate has gotten so bad is because of the binaries. Everything is good or bad.”

I learned the value of telling the whole story, warts and all, from a series of citizen engagement courses I took from Bleiker Training early in my career. One of the core principles they teach is for agencies to be “the first and best source of information” about their projects and programs, especially for “information that’s unfavorable to your project.” It’s a Good Government Files Truism: there is no better way to establish and grow credibility than making sure you do just that.

Effective storytelling in government begins with listening — both to the public and to folks within your organization. Last year, I explored this in depth with a four-part series on listening. Rather than revisiting that discussion here, I’ll focus on the key benefits of listening essential for crafting truly honest storytelling.

The Diminishing Role of Traditional Local News

It’s hardly breaking news local newspapers are disappearing at an alarming rate. Since 2005, the United States has lost almost 2,900 papers, according to The State of Local News Project at Northwestern University. In 2023 alone, the country lost more than 130 print newspapers. Here are some other telling stats:

• Half of the nation’s 3,143 counties have only one news outlet, while 203 are news deserts with zero, meaning there are likely thousands of communities that simply do not have access to local news.

• New digital outlets are not being created fast enough to fill that huge void. The number of digital outlets has held steady at roughly 550 in recent years, with about 20 new outlets opening each year — and roughly the same number closing.

Who can fill that growing information void? I’m looking at you, local government officials, since you stand to gain the most from an informed citizenry.

Compounding the disappearing news media is that trust in the outlets that remain is deteriorating, especially at the national level. Consider this trend data from Gallup:

The Need for Local Government Newsrooms

Government agencies can fill the void left by the decline of traditional news outlets. It’s already happening, in many ways. Remember the cranks who used to write scathing critiques of local elected officials in the “Letters to the Editor” section of the local paper? Those sentiments are now being expressed on the social media platforms most agencies are running. Smart agencies use these platforms as opportunities to explain and defend the work being done at city hall and in school administration buildings.

Public information officers should proactively anticipate the tough questions they’re likely to face from both the public and the media on any issue they’re preparing to communicate. It’s crucial to play devil’s advocate and craft honest, well-considered responses to those challenges. When following the Bleiker approach to preparing to go public with a controversial project, you ask yourself the following questions:

• Are you sure the way you deal with the media enhances your credibility with them?

• Are you absolutely sure that, the way you answer media questions … and the way you communicate with the media, doesn’t — actually — damage your credibility?

• Are you aggressively using the media to build your credibility with stakeholders?

• Are you absolutely sure that your media-policy does not damage your public credibility?

© Bleiker Training

Clearly, being candid and explaining the pros and cons surrounding any issue should be a priority.

I won’t pretend this is easy. A blunt, straightforward approach isn’t always popular with local government executives and elected leaders. Many believe emphasizing the positive is the best way to gain public support. While I understand the inclination, my experience has shown this strategy is counterproductive.

“We do ourselves a disservice by trying to make everything shiny and new,” Jacque says. “We’ve done ourselves a disservice because of our bias for positivity. That bias for positivity is deadly.”

Jacque suggests looking at your organizational values. If transparency is among them, you’ve got a toehold to convince leaders to take a new approach to storytelling.

“I think you have to have the right city manager or superintendent or county manager in place who has tolerance for that kind of truth telling,” Jacque says. “And so, transparency, if that’s a value that your organization holds, then I think that’s really the only path you can choose from because marketing isn’t going to get you there and positivity isn’t going to get you there … It may not be easy at first, but I think once you understand what it is, then everybody in your organization can know that it’s OK for the subject matter experts to say how hard things are, the difficulties that they face and to explain that to the public. And I think that’s what the public deserves.”

The public sees through marketing BS. And it’s not just an American thing. Jacque recalled taking a group of TCU communication students to London about 10 years ago. They toured the Borough of Hackney in inner London. The guide said the area has seen enormous changes over the years, not all of them welcomed by residents. At the time, the borough took the approach of emphasizing only the positive.

The guide said residents nicknamed the borough’s website Pravda, after the former propaganda broadsheet produced by the Communist Party in the Soviet Union.

A glance at the borough’s website today reveals a markedly different approach. I noticed a headline in the news section that reads, “We will need to take more difficult decisions – Councillor Chapman on council finances.” Good on ya’, Hackney.

Benefits of In-House Newsrooms for Local Governments

If you’re a public sector communicator, you know that no one — not even the most experienced, even-handed reporter — can tell your story as well as you. You’re on the inside, day in and day out. You know the personalities, the work culture, the political realities. Owning the content creation process should lead to better-targeted and more effective communication.