Downtown Devil Magazine: Improving News Organizations' Engagement and Communication with Readers

For more than a decade, Phoenix has spent a considerable amount of time and money on revitalizing its downtown area. The opening of the ASU Downtown campus, the construction of a 20-mile light rail line and the area’s numerous conventions and sporting events all have drawn people to downtown. But the local media have not significantly increased their coverage of the issues that are important to downtown residents — at least not enough to match the growth of the downtown community. The Arizona Republic covers the Valley as a whole, often focusing on the region’s suburbs; The State Press, ASU’s student newspaper, focuses more on the university’s main campus in Tempe; and others like the Phoenix New Times, Phoenix Business Journal and Arizona Capitol Times each have a niche — arts, business and politics — that preclude them from dedicating much coverage to the downtown community. So in 2009, a handful of ASU students started the Downtown Devil, an independent, student-run news website covering the ASU Downtown campus and the surrounding downtown Phoenix community. Over the next few years, the website evolved into a hyperlocal news site for the downtown area, filling a gap in the established local media’s coverage.