Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to subscribe to your local newspaper or
Speaker 1: a local magazine. This is a great way to stay
Speaker 1: up to date on what's going on in your area
Speaker 1: and to support a community resource whose absence is a loss.
Speaker 1: A lot of communities will really mourn. So you may
Speaker 1: be thinking that the reign of print journalism is behind us,
Speaker 1: and that may be true. And yes, you can learn
Speaker 1: a lot about what's happening in your community through social media,
Speaker 1: but social media is inevitably going to be less measured
Speaker 1: than what's put out by organizations that have at least
Speaker 1: some lag time between the thought and the publication, and
Speaker 1: local newspapers and magazines have some major upsides that social
Speaker 1: media can't quite match. For starters, social media tends to
Speaker 1: be focused on groups that you have chosen to join,
Speaker 1: and what you see is based on algorithms that are
Speaker 1: tailored to your known interests. A local newspaper or magazine
Speaker 1: will let you know about opportunities that you wouldn't have
Speaker 1: necessarily sought out. Maybe you don't have a high school child,
Speaker 1: but You may learn that a local high school basketball
Speaker 1: team is having an amazing season, and so you decide
Speaker 1: to go to some games. You see a developer quoted
Speaker 1: about a new retail location, and you realize that this
Speaker 1: might be a neighborhood to learn a little more about.
Speaker 1: You might hear about a request for proposals for re
Speaker 1: envisioning a museum space that's closing, and you have an
Speaker 1: idea you'd like to pitch. There is an element of
Speaker 1: serendipity to print that is hard to replicate online. Local
Speaker 1: news can be a source of local stories that make
Speaker 1: for great conversations and can help you connect to your
Speaker 1: community in deeper ways. You can pass along the tip
Speaker 1: that that new Malaysian restaurant is getting rave reviews. You
Speaker 1: can be in the know that a local park is
Speaker 1: getting a long do makeover, which is helpful to pass along.
Speaker 1: At play groups. You can see that a young person
Speaker 1: whose name you recognize from church started a program to
Speaker 1: mobilize voters in his neighborhood, so you can send a
Speaker 1: note to that young man and his parents congratulating them.
Speaker 1: There are feel good stories on national media and social
Speaker 1: media too, of course, but you don't know those people
Speaker 1: it's just a different game. Of course, local news can
Speaker 1: also be bad news, and here it's good to know
Speaker 1: about local problems, partly because you may be able to
Speaker 1: help address them rather than rely on rumor. You see
Speaker 1: that a series of vandalism problems have happened in an
Speaker 1: area with a large abandoned building, you and your neighbors
Speaker 1: may be able to do something about getting new lights. Now,
Speaker 1: I know that plenty of local news is not exactly
Speaker 1: produced by the Woodwards and Bernstein's of the world, and
Speaker 1: many papers have already been hollowed out to running little
Speaker 1: more than wire service pieces. Newspapers can also have their
Speaker 1: own access to grind, but you could decide to say,
Speaker 1: skip the editorial pages if you want, and if you're
Speaker 1: really busy, you can even just decide to read one
Speaker 1: article a day that catches your eye. But in a
Speaker 1: world where many people are working from home and read
Speaker 1: social media and online articles perfectly tailored to our clicking history,
Speaker 1: it can be hard to encounter serendipity or unexpected ideas
Speaker 1: of what to do on a Saturday. A local newspaper
Speaker 1: or magazine can solve that problem, and well, if your
Speaker 1: mayor is insufferable isn't it better to have somebody with
Speaker 1: some institutional authority watching out for that? So if you
Speaker 1: don't subscribe to your local paper or local magazine, pick
Speaker 1: up a copy and try it out. Chances are you'll
Speaker 1: be able to get a good deal. For the first
Speaker 1: few weeks or months of a subscrip option. Get in
Speaker 1: the habit of reading at least a few articles a week,
Speaker 1: you will probably decide that the whole enterprise is worth
Speaker 1: the time. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.
Speaker 1: That's b the number four then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.