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Jim Schaefer, a Pulitzer-Prize winner with a diverse list of career jobs, appears to be creating a new role for him and a new path for Detroit journalism.
His coverage of Kwame Kilpatrick's corruption trial for the Detroit Free Press pioneers a modern way to cover a big story for the 181-year-old newspaper. He files real-time updates of testimony, spices them with with color and analysis, and interacts with readers -- virtually at the same time.
Blogging from courthouses isn't new, but combining live news posts with reader give-and-take appears to be ground-breaking, at least in Metro Detroit. Schaefer credits the young members of the Free Press web team with the idea to add reader feedback to the trial blog he started in late September. It's his brainstorm to interact with the audience -- an idea that came to him after seeing some sportswriters do it during games.
"I've never been a big fan of our online forums – they’re just a big time-waster," Schaefer says in a phone interview.
"But if they're going to pay me to sit through the trial, I might as well interact with readers. We were only going to do this for a week and it took off. Now the traffic numbers are higher than for our sports blogs."
His overall work is a model of what's called multi-platform journalism. In addition to contributing to web reports and print coverage written by colleague Tresa Baldas, Schaefer sends real-time tweets while watching a video feed from a cramped press room. And that's when he's not posting his minute-by-minute blog entries that are the next best thing to a courtroom camera, still barred at federal trials. After each day's recess, he records unscripted video recaps outside the federal courthouse.
During testimony breaks is when Schaefer answers readers' questions at the live blog.
Schaefer does his pioneering version of trial play-by-play from a media room on the downtown courthouse's second floor, where he taps on a Dell. He sits six stories below where the trial runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays. (Baldas reports from the courtroom.)
Schaefer's breakthrough form of interactive court coverage elevates a popular newsroom phrase – "conversations with readers" – to a level beyond responding to emails, online forum questions and comments under articles. His blog audience has swelled to 18,000 unique visitors at its peak, he says.
Split-screen windows let him moderate questions while blogging about testimony as it happens. During breaks, Schaefer answers dozens of inquiries from registered users about unclear testimony, legal minutia and witnesses' relationships with the mayor. (Registration isn't needed just to read.)
Schaefer uses humor and personality to enliven exchanges about trial strategies, witness credibility and even wardrobe choices (defendants', not his). "Kwame Kilpatrick appears to rockin' a bronze sportcoat and an orange/peach tie," he posted Oct. 22. "No bow tie today." At the end of that week, he observed: "This is the [Bobby] Ferguson trial on steroids, with a lot more allegations and a lot more witnesses and subject areas."
Online 'Water Cooler'
The breeze-shooting looseness creates a water cooler or coffee break feel.
"Sorry I didn't get to more questions. Hey, man, even bloggers need to take a 'comfort break'," he posted one day. "With these early-morning court dates and these late-night Tigers games coming, it's gonna be a long week, folks," the 47-year-old reporter typed Oct. 16.
He and readers also chat about fishing, TV shows and the ban on phones, cameras and computers in federal courts, which forces Baldas to come down six floors to brief Schaefer. "She works much harder than me," he commented in one aside.
In a less cordial exchange, a reader tossed this pointed question: "Jim, is it possible for you to be completely objective given your history with all of this? . . . I find it impossible."
Schaefer and M.L. Elrick won a 2009 Pulitzer for uncovering text messages between then-Mayor Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty, his top aide and lover.
Schaefer's replied to the skeptical reader in a minute: "I'm a human being, so of course I have opinions on many matters. It's my job to present a fair accounting of what happened, not opine on what I think. I hope I'm doing that satisfactorily."
Schaefer's other roles during the past 24 years include copy editor, police beat reporter, video game reviewer, feature writer, TV news producer and adjunct journalism instructor. His own journalism studies were at Ohio State (Class of '88.)
During the Kilpatrick case testimony, which resumed Tuesday after a two-week break, Schaefer regularly reminds participants about the presumption of innocence and that prosecution witnesses are the only ones testifying so far. "No one -- including any of the lawyers in court -- knows how this jury is processing all this stuff," notes one reply to a ready-to-convict reader.
"I think they're starting to understand how trials work and to keep an open mind," Schaefer says. "They're learning a lot about the court process."
Could Schaefer's approach work for other news events?
Probably, though when a media outlet has a paper to publish it probably needs to send more than one reporter to the scene. It's often too much for one journalist to blog, tweet, interact with readers and gather enough information for a story for the next day's paper. But extra bodies are in short supply in these days of staff contraction at local papers.
Outlets that don't have to worry about tomorrow, though, have no reason not to let readers or viewers in on the fun, as long as they have a staffer with the ability to multi-task. What Schaefer is doing is not something every reporter in Detroit could do.
Reader-Generated Contest
The casual, frank dialogue and daily comments by several dozen people nurture a sense of community.
More than five dozen regulars are trying to predict the verdict date in hopes that Schaefer will have lunch with the winner. His own guess is next March 13, though he stayed mum about agreeing to the lunch prize -- until now. "Yeah, I could see having lunch with the person who wins the pool," he acknowledges.
The trial, which began with opening statements Sept. 21, is the latest chapter in a decade-long saga. Schaefer and Elrick, now an investigative reporter at Fox2 News, began looking into Kilpatrick's administration in 2002. Their pivotal disclosures of nearly 14,000 of his text messages earned them 2009 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and six other national awards.
Schaefer had time during the court recess to talk about his daily schmoozing with readers:
Deadline Detroit: Who came up with the live blogging idea?
Schaefer: Our web people. We have some very smart young people who set up a more versatile way for mobile users and others to monitor the trial. This whole thing has been a work in progress. Sports has been doing this for a while. I was going to blog the trial anyway and then Stefanie Murray [assistant managing editor/digital media] asked if I wanted to turn on comments.
Deadline Detroit: Is there an impact on coverage from what readers say and ask?
Schaefer: Definitely. It's surprising how much they help. Their interaction keeps me on the straight and narrow, and I learn things all the time – like the time I typed "tow the line" and a reader explained that it's "toe the line" and where that expression comes from. It's useful to get such get such quick feedback.
Deadline Detroit: What's been the biggest surprise?
Schaefer: How it's grown organically and been developed because of the community. The first day was really chaotic and confusing because I answered questions in between posting testimony. Some people just wanted to know what witnesses were saying and couldn't tell what was going on, and they told us. So I just answer questions at the beginning, during breaks and at the end.
I also realized that some people check in just for a while, so periodically I tell who's on the stand, summarize what was said earlier and add each day's headlines. That's the journalism function.
It's also surprising how many people listen from work, keeping the blog on an alternate screen in case the boss comes by. We even have people commenting from outside the country.
Deadline Detroit: Do you feel a sense of community and a curiosity about the regulars?
Schaefer: Yes. Some readers greet me every day and we do get hints about each other's interests, though I don’t know what they look like or sound like. That's why I like to start with good morning greetings and comments about what else is going on just to show that there's a real person behind the blog, not just a robot like it sometimes seems on the internet.
Deadline Detroit: Do you savor the irony of text messaging about the trial, in effect?
Schaefer: (Chuckling) Oh yes, I think about that all the time. It is ironic, definitely. I also think about it when I'm texting personally – careful what you say.
The Tech Tools
* Schaefer's laptop: Dell Vostro
* Blog platform: ScribbleLive, developed by Scribble Technologies of Toronto.
* Live blog viewing: Go to live.freep.com on trial days.
* Blog archives: This coverage index includes "Trial blog replay" listings.
