CNHI Launches National Reporting Program With Gambling Series

By: Joe Strupp When you think of producing high-profile national newspaper stories, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. (CNHI) is not among the first names that come to mind. For most in the business, the chain of 89 dailies and several hundred weeklies is known more for smaller daily papers that provide local and regional news, often on tight budgets, and provide little national scope.

But that may be changing. Two years after launching a concerted effort to better draw upon its many reporters and editors in 21 states, CNHI has built up a news service that distributes original content from reporters based in its dozens of newspaper newsrooms to all CNHI papers.

"The goal was to be a supplemental wire service on the level of a Scripps-Howard or a Knight Ridder," said Brad Dennison, CNHI vice president for editorial, who joined the company in 2004. "High-level, unreported content that is useable in our 21 states. The approach is not to duplicate what AP does, but do what they don't do."

More recently, the news service launched a new program that takes reporters from some of the chain's newspapers for a month-long "fellowship," during which they receive multi-media training and produce a special series on a national topic for use by each paper. Ten reporters from nine CNHI papers have been chosen for the program, which will result in 10 different projects and series.

The first series, on gambling and its addictions, was distributed this past weekend. Reporter Denise Jewell of the Niagara (N.Y.) Gazette wrote the three-part package, along with several sidebars, that has so far been picked up by 70 CNHI papers, as well as a handful of non-CNHI dailies.

"I had been wanting to do something on gambling for about a year, it is a hot topic and it is in every state but two," Dennison said. "It has relevance in every CNHI state." Jewell could not be reached for comment.

The series, which was published in most papers beginning last Sunday, offered stories on everything from gambling effects on suicide to the limited amount of government treatment programs. Including video and graphic elements as well, the series provided statistics on gambling revenue in every state, revenue by state governments from gambling, and money spent on addiction treatment and prevention.

"It showed the reader that this is something that affects them," said J.B. Bittner, CNHI deputy national editor and one of three editors involved in the news service. "It is information they can use."

Editors at CNHI papers that have used the series say it brings a national reporting sense to their product. "There are so many opportunities to localize this kind of story," said Cindy Allen, managing editor of the Enid (Okla.) News Eagle. "It pointed out some of the things that could happen with addictions to gambling." Steve Hall, publisher of the Lockport (N.Y.) Union-Sun & Journal, said the series fit in with his area's growing casino business. "It is relevant to readers in Western New York," he said.

For those handful of non-CNHI papers who paid for the series, the package is another positive element to add to their newshole. "It was timely for our readers," said David Offer, executive editor of two Maine newspapers, the Kennebec Journal in Augusta and the Morning Sentinel in Waterville. "It was a project no one in Maine would have at the same time."

Dennison said several similar projects are in the works, with a focus on war medics in Iraq, home schooling, and the "changing family", among other topics. Each reporter chosen for the projects was picked after applying for the "fellowships" that include a two-day multi-media training program at CNHI's Birmingham headquarters.

The news service push began two years ago as Dennison took over at a time when the news service essentially consisted of an internal Web site where CNHI editors could provide stories from their papers for use by other editors. He said only about 10 stories were posted each day, few with a national focus.

During the first year, Dennison and other editors pushed to have CNHI newspapers provide more stories for the shared site, increasing the number from an average of eight to 10 stories per day up to 40 to 80 within six months. Then, during 2005, the editors increased the number of stories assigned to reporters specifically for use by the news service.

At least 10 original stories and series from CNHI reporters at different papers were produced in 2005 for distribution among all the papers, including some on-site reporting of Hurricane Katrina. Those stories also included a November 2005 three-part series on methamphetamine use that 60 papers published. "It wasn't the greatest thing in the world," Dennison said. "But it served our purpose at the time." That purpose was to show that a special series with national scope could benefit the chain's papers.

But Dennison also saw the limitations of assigning stories to reporters while they remained in their home newsrooms. "When you are using other people's staff, you are at their mercy," he said, noting that the methamphetamine series "should have been out two months sooner, it dragged on and on because they had other things tugging at them."

That's when Dennison and Bittner sought to create the "fellowships" approach that would free up a reporter for an entire month of reporting and writing. "They can go where we need them to go," Dennison said of the reporters. "We require them not to go in to their office for all four weeks, otherwise they will be distracted."

Dennison admits that the news service is not about to rival the New York Times or AP just yet. But he hopes it can continue to grow in to more special projects each year, and perhaps into a dedicated reporting staff year-round. "I like to take it day by day," he said. "We will look back at the end of the year and see what we can build on."