When Northwestern University professor and video journalist Craig Duff heard that the 150-year-old Youngstown Vindicator was closing, he resolved to go back to the area where he grew up in northeast Ohio and document how the community was coping with the loss of its newspaper.
What the veteran of CNN, Time.com and The New York Times learned is that people from inside and outside of Youngstown were determined to take action to keep the public informed. While the fate of the “Vindy” is symbolic of the crisis facing many local news outlets, Duff’s documentary highlights the dedication of journalists and the importance of their work.
Duff, an Emmy award winner, leads the graduate journalism Video and Broadcast Specialization at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. His documentary was made in conjunction with the Medill Local News Initiative, a project to help local news outlets become more financially sustainable.
Here is Duff’s documentary, “Newstown.”