Did you know that New York State’s Adirondack Park is the size of the state of Vermont?
I didn’t know that, either… until I spent some time reading the Adirondack Almanack and chatting with its founder, freelancer John Warren (as John put it: “The size of the Adirondacks is incredible. In fact, the Adirondack Park is the largest protected area in the contiguous United States. It’s larger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, Grand Canyon and Great Smokies combined – and it covers 7 counties and 2 Congressional districts.”).
It turns out that Warren is not only a great local blogger (or, in this case, regional blogger) but he’s also a historian, among other things– so I learned a lot of interesting facts from him. Here are a few of my favorites!
FACT: The Adirondacks are more than just a tourist destination (though they’re that, too).
It’s also a place where people live, year-round. It’s like a microcosm for the country, because there are a lot of issues that are important here that are also national issues: development, the environment, the outdoors. That makes it a unique place and a great location to blog about.
Like any tourist place, the Adirondacks is divided between locals, newcomers and tourists. The newcomers tend to be more environmentally focused. The locals tend to be more interested in hunting and fishing in their backyard. So, the different camps come into contact a lot in terms of development issues.
FACT: Adirondack Almanack was started because Warren felt that local media outlets weren’t covering issues like development well enough.
Development is a big issue here: how do we develop an area that’s supposed to be a park? There are also economic issues involved: the need for industrial and good-paying jobs, for instance. We have traditionally had industries like logging and paper-making here, a lot of forestry products. Mining as well. But those jobs have basically disappeared over the last 50 years, and now ours is a tourist economy. So, affordable housing for locals in a tourist economy is another important issue.
I saw that none of the local papers were covering these important issues. The papers are usually pro-development– to a fault. They’re also usually against the Adirondack Park Agency — it’s been a traditional target for the local media for years. Property rights advocates and local newspapers have really hounded the Adirondack Park Agency for years, as well as the Department of Environmental Conservation. So, we needed another voice in the local conversation [which is why I started the Adirondack Almanack 5 years ago.]
FACT: The Adirondack Almanack is a group effort and a labor of love.
At first [the blog] was really me ranting [about local issues], but over the last 3 years or so it’s really transformed into a regular media outlet. We now have over 20 contributors from all parts of the Adirondack region. They write about different topics, from natural history to outdoor recreation to local politics, commentaries and family events. I write about history. They’re all volunteers I found and approached, and they volunteer for a variety of reasons: some want their voice to be heard, and some want to raise awareness about issues that they care about.
I’ve been really lucky in that I’ve had the ability to gather contributors who are all quality writers. They understand the issues they’re covering in-depth. They really contribute to the community. No one person can do this thing at all – there are over 20 people who make it happen.
FACT: You can also run a locally-oriented site without a small army of volunteers.
New York History is another site I run. I just do it myself – it’s mostly media-release driven. It’s kind of an interesting thing, because it shows how a local site can operate with low energy input. I don’t write all the press releases, I just re-craft the press releases. I edit them, then publish them using no byline, which is what a lot of major media sources do. I think of it as a resource for history, which is important because public history is really suffering. They’re closing historic sites all the time. I’m confident that New York History will help – that it’s going to be an up-and-coming sort of thing.
FACT: Bloggers can add a fresh voice to their local conversations.
We are providing a voice that wasn’t heard before in local media — the voice of the people who support the environment. But it’s not just an environmental blog. We also provide other perspectives: not just from the property rights angle, but also from those who just want to paddle down the river freely, even if it happens to flow through private land.
I also grew up as a hunter and a fisherman, so I understand those issues, too. I remember what it was like to have nothing, not even a movie theater. So, I have a different take on things. We live here in this park, so we have to work here and live here and survive, and we can’t do that without some development. But we’re interested in smart development – it’s the last real wilderness East of the Mississippi, and it’s something that we need to protect. I want to see every town connected by snowmobile trails, but they shouldn’t go through ecologically sensitive areas.
FACT: Your local blog can help you land a book deal (& get other cool gigs).
[Blogging] helps raise recognition of my work, for sure. For instance, the History Press contacted me and asked me to combine some of my essays into a book, which was published last year: Historic Tales from the Adirondack Almanack. So, I got a book deal. I’ve also gotten some research jobs — I do research for documentary films about the Adirondacks. It’s boosted my freelance work, for sure… only now I have less time to do freelance work.
You have to have a bunch of ways to make money [when you live in the Adirondacks]. I work several jobs: I teach media production and new media at Burlington College. I also work at the New York State Writer’s Institute, and I do development work for Maryland Public Television. I also get to go to conferences to speak, to lecture here and there. I recently found out that the Adirondack Mountain Club is going to give me their Communications Award this year. It’s a great honor, because it’s not given out to just anyone.
FACT: Bloggers shouldn’t be afraid to contact local sources for their stories.
Sometimes I’ll contact people who are in the news. In the winter, we had somebody who survived an avalanche. So, I found them on Faceboook and said:
‘Hey, would you mind writing a guest post about your experience’?
No one else did that. And you know, people are reluctant to talk to the [mainstream] media — but here [was] his opportunity to tell his story in his own words.
FACT: Even if you’re not a “Professional Journalist,” you can still set your own journalistic standards for your blog.
I try to have reasonable journalistic standards on the blog. I teach media, so I know what journalism standards are. We try to present a balanced story – which doesn’t always mean two sides, since there aren’t always two sides of a story. It means we try to have a variety of voices and tell stories that aren’t told. Are we doing straight-up journalistic reporting? No, we’re not. But we try to adhere to good balance, and I think that’s important. We label something as ‘commentary,’ if it’s commentary.
I also believe that in journalism we all have a point of view. There’s no such thing as not having a point of view. Be clear about what your intentions are — it’s this foggy middle ground that just uses deceptive wording to send a message — that’s what really gets me. Every person who writes regularly knows that they can change a word or two and add a little phrase here or there that will change the meaning of a story.
