You may have heard that the world of American newspapers is changing.
To be sure, this change comes with its challenges, but more importantly, it comes with vast opportunity.
For years, a quote by G.K. Chesterton, an antihero, has graced my Facebook profile. The English writer, theologian and poet – and no fan of newspapers – made this observation a century ago: “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”
At the AJC, we embrace the inconvenience of change as an adventure.
And one of the pleasures of exploring the brave new world of digital journalism is the frequent experience of seeing the fine, old things we do — the basic work of reporting and storytelling — in a fresh light.
Today, we’re offering you everything old in a form that, for us, is very new: “Breakdown.”
It’s our first foray in presenting high-quality journalism in podcast form. Episode 1 of Season 1 is available to AJC subscribers today at ajcbreakdown.com. Download the episode, take it with you on a drive or jog. Let me know what you think.
Why a podcast? The simple answer is that it is a super cool way for us to share a story with you. It lends itself to depth and narrative – two hallmarks of newspaper journalism.
And then, there’s the wave started by “Serial,” the episodic podcast produced by “This American Life” and narrated by Sarah Koenig. Soon after “Serial” debuted last September it spiked to the top of the iTunes store with more than 5 million downloads. It was at the time, the most downloaded podcast ever. (All these weeks later, it’s still No. 4.)
My 31-year-old son introduced “Serial” to me on our long drive to visit his maternal grandparents’ house in Missouri over Thanksgiving. I liked “Serial” a lot, but as I listened, I kept hearing the voice of my cranky inner newspaper editor saying: “We could do better.” The podcast was a fascinating but maddeningly inconclusive tale of the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee in Maryland and the role played by her ex-boyfriend Adnan Sayed. Sayed was convicted and imprisoned but Koenig compels us to hang on the mystery of whether he was really guilty or not.
We could do better.
Thusly inspired, I went to Richard Halicks, one of our best editors, and asked if we were working on anything that might work as a podcast. He said we were – a piece being reported by Bill Rankin, one of the best legal affairs reporters in America.
Rankin was looking into the case of Justin Chapman, a Bremen. Ga., man who was sent to prison in 2007 after being convicted in the 2006 death of his elderly neighbor. You can find a profile of Alice Jackson, a sweet 79-year-old widow, in today’s Metro section.
Rankin had discovered serious flaws in Chapman’s case and planned to write extensively about what appeared to be a badly botched trial that sent Chapman to prison. The story is also about the passion of a public defender for whom Chapman’s case became a personal cause. It is about ego and power, and, in the end, it is about us and our values as Americans. (Sorry, no spoilers here.)
This is the kind of story that long has been nearly the sole province of newspaper reporters. We have a tradition of investing the time and journalism capital necessary to dig deeply into cases where our political or judicial system intrudes improperly into peoples’ lives. This is an ancient duty.
But as people move to their smartphones and tablets to consume journalism – and just about every other form of information – we have to be there with this kind of work, with the same depth and sophistication you expect from us.
With the help of an awful lot of people at the AJC – so many folks that if this were the Oscars, the band would chime in long before I could read the whole list – we have more or less invented our own way to tell a complex narrative in audible form. You can take “Breakdown “as a companion this afternoon or download it for your commute by bus, train or car tomorrow.
So, if you become hooked, as I hope you will, you can explore the documents, videos, maps and character profiles and other stuff to enrich your experience with the story. We will have new episodes weekly for seven weeks and maybe more, if you’re interested. We’re eager to hear from you and hope you’ll suggest anything we may have overlooked.
And if you want to stick with the printed newspaper, that’s fine. We’ll keep you abreast of the developments in this case and even recap the most recent episode of “Breakdown” for you. (But, you really should play around with the podcast and all its accoutrements; it’s all way cool. And who knew Bill Rankin had such a voice?)
So, welcome to Season 1, Episode 1. As you listen, keep in mind that we’re thinking about Season 2. If you’ve got an idea, let us know.
I hope you find the whole experience, in Chesterton’s words, “rightly considered.”
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