Interesting newspaper series on tourism and local economic development

One of the reasons that I love newspapers is that in their heyday, they had reach--a lot of potential impact-- and depth--they could devote time and space to important issues. TV is pretty much worthless, they focus on images and shock--the medium doesn't lend itself to deep consideration of anything, except in documentaries, and most people don't have the time to watch a documentary, but most importantly, documentaries or long form television takes a lot more time and money than it does to do the equivalent with words and photos.

It's not available online anymore, but newspapers like the Philadelphia Daily News and the Camden Courier Post ran great series on local redevelopment issues. PDN's series was called "Rethinking Philadelphia" and the Camden paper ran two special sections on future visioning. And in fact, the Youngstown Vindicator was one of the founders of the Youngstown 2010 effort, focused on repositioning and resizing that otherwise shrinking community.

This week, the Vicksburg Post in Mississippi has run a series of stories on tourism, the local economy, and opportunities for improvement, based on a project done by the paper in conjunction with a team of journalism students from Mis. Too bad we aren't getting this kind of enterprise reporting locally (of course, corruption and government failure make for much better copy, and since there is so much of it, the local newspapers don't have time to get to more in depth projects maybe...).

Part 1: If you build it, they will come

Part 2: Military park looks ahead to 150th anniversary

Part 3: Vibrancy for residents might hold key to city future

Part 4: Limited public transit is a driving concern

Part 5: No crystal ball on convention center hotel

Part 6: Nature a great natural resource in area

Part 7: As a draw, music offerings could use real 'juke joint'

Part 8: New recreational parks could equal 'major bucks'

Vicksburg Tourism: 'Immersion' experiences increasingly important