![\"cannabis-1382955_1920\"](\"http:\/\/testing.journalists.org\/wp-content\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/cannabis-1382955_1920-350x210.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Weed, pot, marijuana, grass, ganja, cannabis.<\/p>\n
Whatever you call it, covering it\u00a0may be the\u00a0fastest growing beat in America.<\/p>\n
At least that’s what participants said at the ONA panel, \u201cGetting Into the Weed: Launching a Successful Niche Digital Media Product,\u201d organized & moderated by @NushinRashidian<\/a>, co-founder of @CannabisWire.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t have to know the plant, be an expert or even use it, you just have to be a journalist,\u201d said Ricardo\u00a0Baca,\u00a0marijuana editor for the\u00a0Denver Post\/The Cannabist.<\/p>\n After the legalization of marijuana was approved by Colorado voters in 2012, reporting on weed became a hot topic to the point that in 2013, the Denver Post hired Baca as its first marijuana editor. Baca\u2019s beat has set the groundwork for news organizations looking to launch\u00a0their own pot beat.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce it\u2019s legal, it’s big business,\u201d said NowThis editor Sarah Frank.<\/p>\n Josiah M. Hesse, who is a journalist for the Cannabist, said he is respected by his local peers but national respect can be hard to come by.<\/p>\n \u201cMost journalists I know are from Denver. They respect my job and see me as a journalist, however from the national standpoint, some don\u2019t,\u201d Hesse said. \u201cMedical marijuana has helped grow the respect for pot reporting though. Now there are journalists winning journalism awards for stories on pot. Things are looking up.\u201d<\/p>\n Residents of\u00a0Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada will go to the polls this November to vote on whether their state will allow recreational marijuana use, opening up a potential door for pot beat writing to grow across the nation.<\/p>\n John Wenzel, a writer for The Cannabist, said cannabis coverage can only grow.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that pot beat writing will grow eventually,” Wenzel\u00a0said. “Denver is special, some states are more conservative than others and won\u2019t see any point.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are interested in pot and are interested in learning about it. Writing about weed isn\u2019t just smoking in your college dorm, and writing an article,\u201d Wenzel said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Weed, pot, marijuana, grass, ganja, cannabis. Whatever you call it, covering it\u00a0may be the\u00a0fastest growing beat in America. At least that’s what participants said at the ONA panel, \u201cGetting Into…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10542,"featured_media":2362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[480,185],"tags":[1267],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-conference","category-industry","tag-ona16"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/09\/cannabis-1382955_1920-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5Q1c-zY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10542"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4329,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230\/revisions\/4329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2230"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=2230"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Cannabis became legal in Colorado in 2014<\/h3>\n