Dear Editor
The recent election reminds me that to have a functioning democracy with three branches of government, it is essential to have a strong Fourth Estate: news media to shed light on what all levels of government are doing.
For local news, I proudly subscribe to The Chronicle and The Register-Guard. I support KLCC and the Eugene Weekly. I read The Daily Emerald, for example, when they write about a University of Oregon graduate running for mayor of Eugene. And I appreciate our local TV stations, for example, when they highlight efforts to make Main Street in Springfield safer. Alas, it isn’t enough to stay well informed.
A decade ago, The Register-Guard had roughly 50 people in their newsroom; today they have just five. Other local news sources simply haven’t had the staff to make up for the loss of 45 reporters from the area’s only daily newspaper.
Thus I join Noel Nash, owner/publisher of The Chronicle, in welcoming Lookout Eugene/Springfield to the small pool of local news sources.
Lookout is led by Ken Doctor, a 1979 graduate of the University of Oregon journalism program. After working for 21 years in newsrooms, he switched to analyzing the declining news industry.
A few years ago, he took what he had learned to launch Lookout Santa Cruz.
Recently, they won a Pulitzer Prize for their breaking news coverage of devastating floods in Santa Cruz County.
I look forward to seeing what Ken and his team will do here in Lane County.
Rob Zako
Eugene
