24 Hours in New Haven

New Haven’s hyperlocal news web site, the New Haven Independent, is trying out an experiment today by approaching news coverage in a different way. WNPR’s Neena Satija reports.

(Noise from a police radio)

What’s happening on the streets of New Haven at 2 o’clock in the morning? On a recent weekday around this time, Officer Martin Feliciano’s already made an arrest, tested some powder on the subject, and found it to be marijuana. After writing up the infraction he continues his regular beat patrolling the streets of the city’s Fair Haven neighborhood.

It’s a pretty quiet night for Feliciano’s 11 p.m.-7 a.m. shift. But this time around there’s a New Haven Independent reporter in the car, riding along for an hour and reporting on what happens as part of a news experiment the web site is trying. Paul Bass is the editor of the Independent.

BASS: “What happens in the course of 24 hours, that you can call news, even though it wouldn’t be the usual definition of news. Our definition is: It happened, it matters.”

Reporters are covering everything from bakery openings to car mishaps to afternoon prayers. Bass says readers are responding positively, and traffic on the site has spiked 10-15 percent.

BASS: “Things happen day-to-day that actually matter in our lives and have significance, but might not usually make a headline.”

Of course, some stories might normally make bigger headlines than others. The New Haven suburb of East Haven made big news today when four of its police officers were arrested in the wake of an investigation into racial profiling. So the Independent folded the story into the rest of its 24-hour news coverage by visiting barber shops on Grand Avenue where many of the patrons are Hispanic. The resulting headline: at 10:15 a.m., Grand Avenue applauds East Haven bust.

For WNPR, I’m Neena Satija.