As the ProJo turns
By IAN DONNIS | February 28, 2007
If covering the news in Rhode Island can be likened to a battle, the Providence Journal’s State House bureau is a fortress, an outpost singular in its ability to dig out and report important political stories of statewide interest.
That’s why the departure from the bureau of reporter Scott Mayerowitz, a smart, politically savvy standout, seems unlikely to deal a lasting blow to the paper’s Capitol coverage. If the past is a guide, another able scribe will come along to succeed Mayerowitz, 28, who is taking a job doing Web-based reporting for the national business desk of ABC News.
Of greater concern is how the Journal lagged behind other media in covering the pre-election phase of the North Providence special election between interim mayor John Sisto, an ally of his predecessor, Secretary of State Ralph Mollis, and his Democratic challenger, Charles Lombardi. While the ProJo was there to report Lombardi’s victory on Tuesday, Jim Hummel of WLNE-TV broke the signature story of the campaign: how Sisto’s grandson, who was taped leaving his mother’s house in Providence for a week, attends school in North Providence.
Other media, including bloggers and WPRO’s Dan Yorke — who unearthed a flyer in which US Senator Jack Reed was supporting Sisto — also came up with some enterprising stories.
The ProJo, though, which carried a perfunctory North Providence election day story in its regionally zoned Metro section (yet not in the North section, which circulates in at least one neighboring town), seemed not to grasp the inherent drama of the Democratic mayoral shootout. It was content instead to offer periodic coverage, ceding the lead in breaking news to others.
Such slippage is unlikely to occur at the State House, where Kathy Gregg, a 20-year-plus veteran, anchors the bureau. Elizabeth Gudrais, who was promoted to the State House in 2006 to succeed the departed Liz Anderson, is the other staffer who will remain after Mayerowitz’s departure.
Mayerowitz, who started at the ProJo as a two-year reporter-intern shortly after his graduation from Wesleyan in 2000, says, “The Journal has been great to me. I felt it was time to move on and this [job with ABC News] was a great opportunity.
A New Jersey native, Mayerowitz has become respected in Rhode Island for his intelligence and smart political reporting. After starting by covering Tiverton for the ProJo, he reported on the East Bay, and then Cranston during its fiscal crisis and the corresponding rise of Steve Laffey. The scribe justifiably recalls two of his most memorable stories as one about Cranston’s well-renumerated crossing guards and a profile that offered a revealing look at Laffey.
“There have just been some amazing stories here — the state is full of news,” Mayerowitz says. “Through good times and bad, the Journal has really tried to shed light on these unique stories, and I’ve been privileged to be a part of it.”
It’s not a new story for a talented young reporter to move on after a number of years at the ProJo. What is different is the growing separation between the depth of the reporting emanating from the State House and from other parts of the state.
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