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Council retreat spotlights communications challenge: loss of local paper, social media limits and outreach gaps
Summary
Council and staff spent the retreat diagnosing a multi‑year decline in traditional local news, gaps reaching non‑English and underrepresented communities, and the attention‑economy limits on civic engagement. City communications staff reviewed tools, metrics and near‑term steps.
At its March 1 retreat the Issaquah City Council and city communications staff focused a substantial portion of the meeting on community engagement and how the city communicates with residents. Council members and staff framed the problem broadly: fewer residents attend public meetings than before COVID, the city lost its long‑standing local newspaper, and social platforms and generational differences are fragmenting how people receive local information.
City communications staff described the department’s tools and reach, and said the city manages the website, multiple social channels (Facebook, Instagram, X), a weekly email newsletter (Insider), topic‑specific subscriber lists, podcasts and video, print signage for projects, and in‑person outreach. Staff reported record digital metrics for 2024: more than 500,000 unique visitors and roughly 1.7 million page views on the city site, strong engagement on Facebook and Instagram, and growing use of YouTube for recorded meetings and produced video. The communications team noted platforms reach different audiences and that mobile users represent a majority of web traffic.
Council members and staff identified several persistent gaps: the city’s messages are sometimes not available in the platforms used by particular cultural communities (for example, WeChat or community group chats); people without strong digital habits are harder to reach; and short attention spans mean residents often only come to city conversations when issues directly affect their property or neighborhood. Several council members urged more “bite‑sized” explainers and more routine, short summaries of council actions so residents can understand outcomes without watching full meeting recordings.
Staff described recent and planned work to address those gaps: a refreshed Insider newsletter with more calendar‑style listings; a weekly police blotter and a proposed police podcast segment; the Uniquely Issaquah series for community storytelling; upgraded project pages and a city project map; and partnerships with local community publications and cultural organizations for translated materials. Staff said they will continue to track digital metrics, adjust platform use to meet audience preferences, and experiment with short, visual explainers for complex topics such as budget planning.
Council members asked staff to explore additional ways to meet residents where they are — more in‑person outreach and neighborhood events, ways to work with trusted community groups for translation and distribution, and simple, timely recaps of council votes and decisions. Staff noted capacity constraints (communications is a small team) and said they will prioritize tactics that broaden reach or provide essential public information, and will return to council with recommendations.
What comes next: city staff will bring back the community survey results in May and continue refining the newsletter, project pages and a police podcast. Staff also suggested updating social‑media policies and examining printed mailings or neighborhood connections where that method is effective.
