What attracts many young people to journalism is the unique role and responsibility of reporters and newsrooms in their communities. They are the primary sources of daily news and critical information about local emergencies and natural disasters. Putting oneself in harm’s way to cover those events is often dangerous. Newsrooms can experience loss of power, cellphone access and even property damage, limiting their capabilities to share emergency updates.
The increasing intensity of wildfires, hurricanes, tornados and other natural disasters and emergencies that can occur any time and anywhere has only made reporting the news more perilous. Kate Maxwell, founder and former publisher of The Mendocino (California) Voice, experienced this firsthand when covering the deadliest fire in Mendocino County history in 2017 and very severe winter storms and droughts.
She was motivated to develop and launch the Local News Go Bag Toolkit project in March 2024 to help local newsrooms and journalists be better prepared and individually protected. Maxwell received a 2023–2024 fellowship from Reynolds Journalism Institute, providing some resources to focus on her project.
“Currently, I’m finalizing a survey to obtain a more quantitative, community-wide sense that preparedness is more top of mind for many news outlets. I’m focused on the next steps in the project so it can serve newsrooms at all stages of their preparation,” Maxwell said.
Even in its initial iteration, the project website (newsgobag.com) presents extensive information, guides, tips and resources from many journalism and news organizations:
Editor & Publisher readers can access a go-bag and equipment tracker spreadsheet as a Google Doc. There is also another Google Doc with the steps and details to develop an emergency reporter and operations plan. (The links are live at EditorandPublisher.com.)
“I’m planning for the website to be an ongoing, expanding resource, including case studies as newsrooms expand and share their strategies. I also want to have broader conversations with newsrooms as they face these questions and share peer-to-peer support,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell emphasized that training and exercises are crucial preparations for covering natural disasters and emergencies. The “table-top” emergency exercise presents editors and reporters with several scenarios to discuss everyone’s role and responsibility and how the newsroom would react and function. The “hot wash” exercise is a post-disaster or -emergency session to evaluate preparedness, share onsite reporters’ experiences and refine the process. She also suggested inviting local emergency services personnel to participate in the exercises.
Establishing relationships with local emergency services and community groups is also a crucial component of preparing for coverage of these events. Maxwell recommends that now is the time for publishers and editors to contact and introduce themselves to these organizations. Become familiar with how they respond to local emergencies and let them know reporters will be present to gather and share information with the public.
Maxwell invites anyone to contact her (info@newsgobag.com) about the Local News Go Bag project. “I would love to hear from others in the news industry to tell me what I’m missing or ask me questions so I can add notes and refine it to be clearer and more useful,” Maxwell said.
Bob Sillick has held many senior positions and served a myriad of clients during his 47 years in marketing and advertising. He has been a freelance/contract content researcher, writer, editor and manager since 2010. He can be reached at bobsillick@gmail.com.
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