Appen Media newsroom staff takes listening tour to Milton

The newsroom at Appen Media Group stopped at Six Bridges Brewing in Milton May 16 to listen to residents about how to improve local coverage.

This was the fifth stop in the company’s “Listening Tour,” a seven-month series touching base in each of Appen Media’s coverage areas. So far, staff have made rounds in Dunwoody, Roswell, Johns Creek and Forsyth County in an effort to gain valuable insight from residents on how to strengthen reporting.

Publisher Hans Appen opened the forum with questions to staff about what brings them to work every day and how they view the future of journalism. Appen also asked about the kinds of myths and stereotypes they see about journalists.

The floor was turned over to the crowd of about a dozen, who suggested topics they would like to see covered in the newspaper like health and traffic concerns. 

One guest asked about the open records process, wondering how cities can charge for open records that are public information. 

Director of Content and Development Carl Appen, who regularly files open records requests on behalf of the newsroom, said state law allows local governments to charge a reasonable fee for time and resources used to gather records, though most do not as a courtesy.