Joel Haskard, CERTs Co-Director with the University of Minnesota’s Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships, took some time to interview Ken Paulman, the editor of a website that Joel has recently become addicted to, Midwest Energy News.
Midwest Energy News, a project of Fresh Energy and RE-AMP, is a daily collection of the top energy stories of importance to the region. Ken is a professional journalist who has worked as an editor for the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, and Minnesota Public Radio.
The Interview:
Joel: How did you get you get your start in Journalism?
Ken: I dabbled with reporting in college, but didn’t get serious about it as a career until about eight years ago. I did a graduate program at the University of Oregon, my first news job was in 2004 as a copy editor in Spokane, shortly after that I moved into online news and then into management.
Joel: When did you begin focusing on energy issues specifically?
Ken: When I started here at Fresh Energy, about a year ago. I still don’t consider myself an expert on energy issues, and in a way, that’s been to my advantage, because I tend to view things from the perspective of a layperson, which, I hope, makes the site more accessible.
Joel: How did Midwest Energy News get started?
Ken: Fresh Energy wanted a way to keep people informed on energy issues, and keep those issues in the forefront. There’s a lot of good reporting out there, but it’s scattered all over the web and tends to be buried on news sites.
Joel: What is the goal of Midwest Energy News?
Ken: We want to advance the energy discussion in a way that’s analytical and fact-based, and make it easy for readers to follow along and keep up.
Joel: How do you find the articles?
Ken: I’ve got about 300 RSS feeds, everything from the New York Times to small-town newspapers, that I search each morning with a series of keywords. Most of the stories come through that process, but I also get quite a few from Twitter and tips from readers. We’ve also started publishing our own original stories, written by professional freelance journalists.
Joel: How often do you refresh articles?
Ken: I try to get the site updated each weekday by 7am. I may post additional stories throughout the day, but not many, and usually a story will stay on the home page for at least a full 24 hours before it drops off. If you visit the site once a day or subscribe to our email digest, you shouldn’t miss out on anything.
Joel: If people have an energy-related article in their local newspaper, can they submit them to you?
Ken: Absolutely. They can email me via email (Paulman@fresh-energy.org) or reach on Twitter (@mwenergynews). I’d rather hear about the same story from ten people than miss it entirely.
Joel: Do you have an idea of your readership totals, and from what states people are visiting the website?
Ken: The site is still very much in its infancy. We’re seeing about 3,000 unique visitors a month, along with more than 1,000 social media followers and 500 subscribers to our email digest. Those numbers are growing rapidly, but our focus is on the quality of the audience rather than the size. We have journalists, government officials, and people in industry that use the site regularly—that’s who we see as the core readers. Also, the traffic we see on our original reporting is comparable to what I’ve seen for similar stories on the much bigger mainstream news sites I’ve worked on. About half of our site visits come from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois, but we have readers in all 50 states as well as Canada.
Joel: You see all of these articles about energy issues in the Upper Midwest coming across your desk (or computer screen at least). How do you think Minnesota is doing on energy issues compared with our neighboring states?
Ken: That’s a tough question to give a concise answer to. Clearly, Minnesota has been a leader in renewable energy, but it remains to be seen how the 2010 elections will impact things going forward. There’s a lot of action in Michigan and Ohio right now, too—with declining manufacturing bases, the stakes are much higher in those states.
Joel: I’ve become addicted to your website as a fast way to scan energy issues in the Upper Midwest. Are their similar resources for other regions?
Ken: That’s good—addiction is exactly what we’re going for. There are a lot of good sites covering energy issues, but they tend to be either really wonky, very specifically focused (on, say, solar power or ethanol), or they deal with energy issues as part of broader environmental coverage. The Midwest is unique in that virtually every type of energy production you can think of is at play here, and it’s an important bellwether for national policy. I’m not sure that regional focus would make as much sense in other parts of the country.
Joel: What are your hopes and plans for Midwest Energy News looking forward?
Ken: For the short term, it’s just a matter of getting better at everything we’re doing now and seeking out new ways to promote the site (we’ve done very little so far in terms of marketing). Our next steps moving forward are to diversify our funding base and expand capacity for doing original reporting.
Check out Midwest Energy News and try not to get hooked—we dare you! Just head to www.MidwestEnergyNews.com >>
