From Durham’s latest political happenings to the hippest cultural events, Kevin Davis writes about it all, and faster than some of the area’s biggest news sources.
The young author’s ability to report on the latest stories with a twist of his own opinion has made him popular among the city’s residents. Davis’ blog about Durham, Bull City Rising, is a passion for the assistant director for the Office of Information Technology.
Davis recognizes his work’s popularity among devoted Durhamites and has worked hard to keep the blog’s energy going—no easy task for a full-time employee. His job at Duke leaves Davis no choice but to work on the blog during his evenings, leaving no room for other interests.
Regardless, Davis said he enjoys the work, and over the years it has allowed him to meet Durham’s many faces. This, he said, comes with many challenges as it becomes more difficult not to editorialize reporting.
“The more you start to know people, the harder it is to say what’s on your mind,” Davis said.
Despite this, Davis said Bull City Rising fills a unique niche in the city’s media outlet, as it allows him to cover stories more thoroughly than the average newspaper. He credits this to the fact that the blog’s 4,000 to 6,000 weekly views come from self-selected readers who are already aware of Durham’s latest issues.
But Davis wasn’t always a fan of Durham.
“When I was looking at colleges, my dad and I came to Duke and to Durham,” Davis said. “I hated Durham. A small town in the South… not somewhere I wanted to be.”
Davis ended up at Harvard University where his passion for journalism began. While working for The Harvard Crimson as both an editor and a technology columnist for four years, Davis developed a hobby for writing.
Davis graduated in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and worked outside journalism in various locations, before finally moving to Durham in 2005. This time, the Bull City charmed him—Davis and his wife immediately fell in love with Durham.
After living here for about a year, Davis said he realized the city rarely received any positive coverage in traditional media outlets.
“Durham was undergoing a renaissance, but the TV news and [The (Raleigh)] News & Observer only covered crime,” he said. “I was feeling like not all of Durham’s story was being told.”
Davis decided to utilize his interest in journalism and the skills he picked up at Harvard to start a blog about Durham, aptly named Bull City Rising, that would focus on the economic development and growth of the city. The blog’s coverage soon expanded to politics, culture, trends and the latest news and soon grew in popularity. Davis’ knack for journalistic writing earned Bull City Rising the title of the best blog about Durham by the blogging Web site outside.in.
Davis said his readership may soon expand in the near future as local newspapers find it difficult to face the economic climate. Although he sees readers relying more on the Internet for news in the coming years, Davis said Bull City Rising does not make enough revenue to increase its coverage to meet that demand.
Staff members from both The (Durham) Herald-Sun and The News & Observer, however, said Davis’ blog is not a replacement for the newspapers’ online editions.
Bob Ashley, editor for The Herald-Sun, said there is a difference between Davis’ style of reporting and a newspaper Web site.
“I think blogs like Kevin’s... are going to be a source of information for people, but they’ll still rely on information collected, aggregated, reported and checked for accuracy by trained journalists,” Ashley said.
Regardless, Davis said he hopes to one day have his own staff that can report more, especially one that can cover stories dealing with private institutions such as Duke. Currently, Davis only covers news in the public sphere. Expanding coverage, however, is a challenge given that the blog does not have many business partners.
Jim Wise, a staff writer for The News & Observer, said Davis could get online advertisers if blogs like his had information from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which provides media viewership and readership information to advertisers.
All challenges aside, Davis said he is optimistic about the future of his blog and sees it being more prominent in 10 to 15 years.
“The economic model [for blogging] has to evolve to make increased coverage more sustainable. [Right now] the blog kind of eats my life, but it’s a lot of fun,” he says.
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