8-1-22: Sacramento Matters

Once upon a time, daily newspapers were central to the communities they covered. Dailies had ample resources to cover local governments and institutions—and, in fact, many even sent reporters to cover the machinations of state government. But that was before newsrooms contracted precipitously during the Great Recession. Nowadays, unless your local newspaper is the Los Angeles Times—which this year expanded its news staff to include two reporters based in Sacramento—news stories about state government may get short shrift.

Seven years ago a group of individuals passionate about the intersection of democracy and journalism set about filling the void left behind when daily newspapers and television stations stopped keeping a close eye on Sacramento politicians. In a 2015 article for Politico, Ken Doctor (coincidentally, the man behind Lookout Santa Cruz) wrote about how CalMatters came into being, quoting its manifesto: “Many of the issues settled in the statehouse—education, environment, criminal justice, healthcare delivery, immigration—play out on the national stage, with a ripple effect that goes far beyond our state borders. And yet, a shockingly small percentage of even the most engaged Californians have any real understanding of how Sacramento works or who the key players are.”

Two years later, CalMatters had solidified its goal of bringing state government reporting to the masses. Co-founder David Lesher told Christine Schmidt of Nieman Lab, “Looking ahead, we are at something of a pivot point. For our mission purpose of just informing voters, does it matter if CalMatters wrote a story that appears in the L.A. Daily News?”