Fort Wayne Media Maven: Have You Died? No Such Luck

The Maven's last blog post was back in January, complementing local TV meteorologists for their calm and informative reports during a prolonged snow event. Other than that, there's been silence. Oh, there have been frequent typos, poor grammar, abuse of the AP Style Book, and the ever-popular geographic fubars we all know and love. Most of those have been addressed on Facebook and X. Overall, local media seems to be moving along without any major blunders or self-inflicted injuries.

Have the Fort Wayne media participants' performances improved significantly, or has the audience grown to accept what is placed on the media dining table every night? In truth, it's probably a little bit of both.

The local media landscape has also changed. We have become a one-newspaper town. The last News Sentinel afternoon paper flopped off the press less than a decade ago. Fort Wayne once had 4 TV news outlets, but now we have 2. OK, 2 and a half, if one counts WFFT Fox 55 reports from Lafayette. Radio news, real radio news only has one outlet, WOWO 1190 and 92.3. Yes, the local public broadcaster does "news", but similar to most local radio news, it's a capsulization of stories the Journal Gazette offers online. This is what has become the new normal, and the audiences seem to be fine with that. The Maven should also note that a few free/subscription-based news products have come online and are gaining audience and revenue.

The Maven would be foolish to claim any credit for the improvement of media performance. Still, considering the items sent to the Maven, over the past years by readers, viewers, and blog readers, one could argue that bringing media's shortcomings to light has helped others understand the importance of watching the media and calling out real or perceived crimes against that audience.

Just for giggles and grins, let's review a handful of what the media foisted on their audience from more than a decade ago. The Maven thinks you'll agree media is doing better, measurably better.

Here we go:

At Least The Print Journalist Got It Right. TV? Not So Much: https://fwmediamaven.blogspot.com/2022/10/did-we-view-same-meeting.html

Police Cars Wearing Handcuffs: https://fwmediamaven.blogspot.com/2017/07/police-cars-wearing-handcuffs.html

Two Friday Night Favorites: https://fwmediamaven.blogspot.com/2013/05/obligatory-wane-tv-typo-56.html

Those Rand McNally Moments: https://fwmediamaven.blogspot.com/2024/01/those-rand-mcnally-moments-make-you.html

WOWO Convicts Man of Murder (no trial, no jury) https://fwmediamaven.blogspot.com/2012/08/wowo-news-convicts-another-person-of.html

WOWO Icon's Name Butchered by his Own Station: https://fwmediamaven.blogspot.com/2022/05/some-old-guy-that-used-to-work-here-or.html

All City Council Members Look Alike (AKA stale file photo): https://fwmediamaven.blogspot.com/2024/04/not-current-photo.html

Under Investigation? Depends On What Paragraph You Read: https://fwmediamaven.blogspot.com/2012/07/confused-yes-i-am.html

The Case of the Illegible Player: https://fwmediamaven.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-case-of-illegible-ineligible-player.html

JG Loses Sight of Site: https://fwmediamaven.blogspot.com/2012/11/news-sentinel-loses-sight-of-site.html

WOWO Revolving Newsroom Door: https://fwmediamaven.blogspot.com/2012/11/another-one-bites-dust.html