News Site Keeps Focus on Town's Recession

Like other media organizations this year, MSNBC.com wanted to show the wrath of the recession at the kitchen table level. So it began what is one of the most unusual experiments in online journalism to date: it ensconced itself in one city in Indiana and documented how that city grappled with the economic downturn. For the Elkhart Project, which is entering its fifth month, MSNBC.com assigns one staff member to Elkhart, Ind., at almost all times to ensure a regular output of blog posts, slide shows, videos and Twitter messages. In Elkhart, readers and viewers see the effects of job losses, foreclosures and stimulus money projects — what MSNBC calls "stories of struggle and recovery in America." The project has won over some residents who were initially upset about the media's portrayal of the manufacturing city of 53,000, which has an unemployment rate twice the national average and is sometimes treated as a national symbol of distressed middle America. The project has also been recognized by other journalists for its storytelling; last week it received the National Press Club's online journalism award.