May 27, 2009 07:51 PM UTC

The Shrinking Press Corps at the State Capitol

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• by: Colorado Pols

Joe Hanel of The Durango Herald laments the small press presence at the State Capitol for I Want My Rocky:

I’ve been hung over too much this year. It’s not because I suddenly developed a drinking habit. But we have a tradition in the state Capitol press corps of buying drinks for colleagues who are leaving their jobs, voluntarily or not. And this year, I’ve had to say goodbye to too many people who are leaving the business against their will.

The American Journalism Review just released its survey of the population of state capitol reporters and found some predictable bad news. AJR’s survey isn’t perfect. For example, it missed me, a correspondent for The Durango Herald. And it doesn’t take into account the seasoned reporters who cover legislatures less than full-time or as freelancers. But its overall finding of a 30 percent decline in capitol reporters since 2003 rings true. It’s at least that bad in Colorado. Hence, my hangovers…

…All this adds up to a loss of decades of experience in the press corps. It’s not just the lack of warm bodies at the press table. It’s the lack of authority. I’ve been on the beat for four years, and it wasn’t until this year that I finally felt like I knew what I was talking about, at least some of the time. I’ve become a better journalist because I work in the same office as other good reporters. The coverage in  The Durango Herald will suffer from the loss of John and Charles and Jeremy and Marianne and K.C. I can’t tell you how yet, but I know that sometime next year, I’m going to have a question on the Department of Agriculture, I’ll turn to ask K.C., and she won’t be there. I’ll spend hours finding an answer I could have gotten in minutes, and meanwhile, other reporting will just go undone.

Every reporter pulled off the island disrupts the workings of the whole tribe. Meanwhile, the Capitol will go on running. The various tribes of politicians and lobbyists are doing just fine, as populous and healthy as ever.

We couldn’t agree more.