Sobering thoughts on the 4th estate

From one of the best.

At my first NC Sine Die in 2004, the press corps was 20-something strong. Reporters and photogs fought over scoops, raced each other up the stairs, and went in on pizzas in the wee hours.

This year, at 2am, during the hottest debate of the session, there were eight of us scattered in a press room lined with mostly empty desks. Gary Robertson, AP. Mark Binker, Greensboro. Barry Smith, Freedom. Josh Ellis, Curtis Media. Ben Niolet and Dan Kane, N&O. Scott Mooneyham, Insider. And me. Fewer than one per million people in this state.

The competitive urge is still there in spades, but it’s different these days. We’ve learned to work together because, after round after round of cuts in the industry, we have to. Cooperation is the only way 8 people can keep tabs on 170 legislators, ad hoc committee meetings, and the dozens of floor amendments that fly by in a 19-hour session.

We use Twitter to let each other know where we are and what’s happening. We share what documents and photos and audio we get, and bill histories and fiscal notes, and, most importantly, we share what we know when some bill no one else has been following suddenly takes center stage.

In the “good old days,” it was all about the scoop - the exclusive story no one else had. We all still want that. But delivering important information to our audiences is more important than our egos. And when there aren’t enough bodies to go around, collaboration not only can co-exist with competition -- it has to.

Laura's blog is one I read daily. If you care about what's happening in North Carolina state government, you should too.