In an experiment in democracy, City Desk readers use local news to participate in city budget process

Commentary by Pat Davis, City Desk

Pat Davis is a former Albuquerque City Councilor. He is the publisher of City Desk ABQ and owner/publisher of a group of newspapers in Central New Mexico.

It has been just over five months since we launched City Desk ABQ, the city’s new nonprofit news publication. To date, the web counters at WordPress and Google tell us that over 190,000 visitors have learned something about our city from our newsroom. That’s not bad for a nonprofit startup!

But as a nonprofit, getting more eyes on our stories isn’t the mission.

When we launched, we set two big goals:

1. Hire the best local, independent journalists we can find and give them the time and tools to dig into how city hall and local government really work
2. Create a way for local readers to use informative news to engage and influence city outcomes for the better – whether that means attending a public meeting, donating to a nonprofit in need, or starting a conversation with a city councilor 

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So, how’s that going? Some of our readers noticed a recent experiment we’re trying in our news stories.  

We added a special comment box to some of our stories during the city’s recent two-month budget process.

Readers who received the prompts were encouraged to “Use our news! Now that you’ve caught up on the issue, take a moment to provide comment to your elected leaders to tell them what you think.”

We all believe that local news matters, but it is hard to track in real-time how readers engage with those stories to participate in the local democratic process. That’s what makes this experiment so unique.

Here’s what we found: Our reporters wrote 12 stories over seven weeks detailing how the city’s budget impacted different programs and communities. That’s more than any other local news outlet.

In the weeks since we launched that new feature, almost 100 readers shared input with city councilors based on our coverage.

Readers and other community members who reached out to oppose the mayor’s proposed fee increases for popular family activities, including the BioPark and pools, helped convince councilors to change the budget to avoid those fee hikes.

Other readers asked councilors to restore funding for libraries and asked questions about policing and housing goals. Some received personal answers.

What did we learn? Local democracy depends on local news, and when residents are invited to learn about the issues and participate in the process, they will.

As a former city councilor, I know firsthand how hard it is to catch every detail of a $1.4 billion budget that spans hundreds of pages. When we had big local newsrooms, members of the public would line up for hours for public comment or trade letters to the editor about proposed policy changes.

A city’s budget is its statement of priorities and values. It’s the most important piece of legislation passed all year.

Community organizations and individuals who care about policing, housing and library budgets have to be invited to the conversation. That’s why local journalists are so important and why shrinking newsrooms are so dangerous to local democracy.

I think we’re onto something unique and this “use our news!” experiment shows it. Our little experiment was made possible by our readers who invested a lot early on or a little each month to help us launch City Desk. We are so thankful to everyone who gives each month to keep us going. 

We haven’t made a big money plea in a while, so here it is: If you think this experiment in nonprofit news we can use is worth continuing, please help us now.  

Business support welcome! Like NPR and PBS, we rely on readers and local business support to make this work.
See how local business leaders can support important local institutions like local news. Learn more about sponsorships here.