Tell us what’s important to you about housing, hate, elections
As a local media company, we keep Whatcom County informed about critical topics. And our success as a local media company is tied to our success in the digital world.
I took a look at our top five most popular stories in the last six months. Every one of them was read by as many, or more, people as we had household customers at the height of print.
They are, in order:
“Bomb threat leads to evacuation, closure of Bellingham Regal Cinemas theaters Sunday”
“Three-alarm fire burns two landmark businesses in downtown Bellingham”
“Timothy Bass serving a three-decade prison term for 1989 murder of Mandy Stavik”
“Whatcom County jury finds Timothy Bass guilty of murdering Mandy Stavik in 1989”
“Whatcom deputies arrest a man who called to say he’d killed a friend at Baker Lake”
More than 64,000 people read the story about the bomb threat. More than 90% of readers found the Bass prison term story on Google, probably while watching the “20/20” special on the case. We knew the television show would introduce people around the nation to the murder and that they would search for more information, which we had from years of coverage.
And while we love to have anybody read our stories, we pay particular attention to the stories logged-in subscribers read.
The top five stories read by subscribers varied a bit from the list above.
“Three-alarm fire burns two landmark businesses in downtown Bellingham”
“Bomb threat leads to evacuation, closure of Bellingham Regal Cinemas theaters Sunday”
“Here are the results for the Whatcom County primary election Tuesday night, Aug. 6”
“Whatcom County jury finds Timothy Bass guilty of murdering Mandy Stavik in 1989”
“Male pedestrian dies after being hit by dump truck near Bellingham Costco”
Our goal is to provide breaking news of wide interest and in-depth coverage of topics we know are important to Whatcom County. The in-depth coverage may not find as wide an audience as breaking news, but it reaches an audience invested in change and accountability.
We’d love to know what questions you have about them that we can find answers for. And we’d like to hear about your experiences, your frustrations and joys, to help us cover many facets of issues.
Housing, hate, elections
Our top topic is housing. Dave Gallagher watches prices, availability and construction. Robert Mittendorf covers public policies that impact how and where people live. Kie Relyea has written extensively on community efforts to end homelessness.
We challenged ourselves this year to improve our election coverage, trying new tactics that would be helpful to voters. Robert has shouldered the heavy lifting, with assistance from super intern Warren Sterling. We’ve done more profiles, covered election topics and created video profiles of candidates. And we’ll remind you of all those materials in coming days as you start to mark your ballots.
Robert has also been covering the growing local threat of white supremacy by describing how our community and its institutions address racial and social justice. He’s been working with Propublica’s Documenting Hate project and several of our tips have come through that project.
The Propublica project is ending this year but we still need your tips. We have information online about how to contact us securely and we always invite your emails to reporters or to newsroom@bellinghamherald.com.
We’re thankful so many Whatcom County residents recognize the value of local news and support it with their digital subscriptions to The Bellingham Herald. We hope you’ll also participate in our coverage of critical topics by sending in tips or sharing your experiences with our reporters.
I’ll be back next week, wrapping up this series of columns with a Q&A of questions you’ve asked. There’s still time to drop me a note with your questions at julie.shirley@bellinghamherald.com.
Before I go, because it’s important you know the local people who produce your news, I’ve asked the staff to help me introduce themselves.
INTRODUCING: ROBERT MITTENDORF
What you do at the Herald: I’m a reporter covering city/county government, housing and related issues, plus weather and traffic/transportation.
Bio: I grew up in a small Michigan dairy town and moved to Bellingham in 2002 after 20 years in California. I’ve been married 26 years to Rebecca Sauter, who works for Bellingham Schools. One of our daughters is pursuing a multi-disciplinary degree in human sexuality at WWU’s Fairhaven College and the other is finishing a master’s degree in Holocaust studies through the University of Haifa.
What do you do when you’re not at work? It’s a good bet that you’ll find me in the kitchen, behind the lens of a camera, or at the firehouse. I studied photography in California, and I had a couple of small shows, but my real passion is cooking. Lately, I’ve been exploring Mideast cuisines -- especially Moroccan and Israeli. Family time is important to us, and sometimes we love to prepare a meal and just hang out. I’m also a volunteer firefighter with South Whatcom Fire Authority. It’s like having a second family, and I love being able to serve my community in a different way.
What are you reading/watching? My reading list tilts heavily toward children’s and young adult literature, with a little history and detective fiction. We don’t have TV at home _ we enjoy streaming and borrowing DVDs from the library. We’re watching “The Spy,” “Derry Girls” and “Call the Midwife.”
Where’s your happy place? Poking through tidepools at Rosario Head, hiking in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Calif. Or anywhere with my wife and/or daughters.
First job? I was a paperboy for the Lansing (Mich.) State Journal starting in fifth grade.
Why’d you become a journalist? I’ve always loved telling stories. I feel like I’m helping to write the daily history of my community.
What’s a really good day for you professionally? Seeing lots of people attend an event that I wrote about and hearing the organizers say that everyone mentioned my story.
And the worst? Reading online criticism that shows that the person clearly hasn’t read past the headline.
And finally, if you were a Ben and Jerry’s flavor, what would you be? Half Baked.
What did I miss about the essential you? I revel in a good #dadjoke. And I’m at the Y most mornings around 6 a.m.
