Q&A: Weekly editor accomplishes Inner Circle in six days
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Carrie Gonzalez Myers, editor of the Randolph County Herald Tribune and Steeleville Ledger, two weeklies in Illinois, accomplished all eight areas of the Inner Circle in six days. From Web elements, where she exceeds expectations, to News Cube, she's doing it all in her one-person newsroom. Find out how she did it.
How many people work in your newsroom? What's your circulation and frequency of publication?
At the Randolph County Herald Tribune there is one person in the newsroom: me. Our office also publishes the Steeleville Ledger, which I am totally responsible for as well. At my publications I am responsible for writing stories, covering events, taking photos, blue lining the newspapers, typing up press releases, editing stories, proofing the newspapers, managing the website and laying out both newspapers in full.
The circulation for the Herald Tribune is 2,090 and 300 for the Ledger. Both newspapers are published weekly, coming out on news stands on Tuesday evening.
Take us through the process. How did you accomplish all eight areas?
I started with photocopying the expectation scorecard from the Gatehouse Media Newsroom Handbook. From there I went step by step through the Web Cube evaluation. I dated the top of the sheet for the week it was going to happen; I then checked off each and every project as I accomplished them. The web evaluation included updates, photo galleries, reader callouts and First in Print. For a newsroom my size the requirements were low, and I wanted to exceed all of them. Therefore, I gave my self a personal goal to do so.
UPDATES: I utilized the example given in the newsroom handbook. The example included 12 updates, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. throughout the day. I kept that example on my desk and set an alarm on my phone for each time an update was required. When the alarm went off, I updated the web per the requirement.
PHOTOS GALLERIES: I made sure to cover enough events to have enough for numerous galleries on our website. In the first six days, I placed two galleries online, one over the weekend and one in the new week for a total of four galleries.
READER CALLOUTS: I downloaded the reader callouts templates and placed two on the homepage of our website in the carousel. I used callouts that were relevant to the time of the year, graduation and Father's Day. I placed them on Wednesday, and by Thursday I had my first submission along with a note from the reader thanking me for providing the community with this service. Within the next couple of days I received another submission. Beyond putting them on our website, I also put the callout on our newspaper's Facebook site.
FIRST IN PRINT: First in Print began with me downloading the template. From there, I uploaded the graphic to our website in the carousel. Underneath the graphic I wrote a brief explanation of the First in Print program and then listed three stories that were print exclusive. I also included contact information to gain new subscribers. This was also posted on our Facebook page.
COMMUNITY PARTNER JOURNALISM: When it came to the News Cube evaluation, I went through the newsroom handbook to see what templates were available. I started with the pet profile, which falls under the community partner journalism because ... it was a quick and easy one to use for me to become compliant.
PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM: For the public service journalism I started with the two opinions template. I chose that one because currently in our town the big issue is approving a new police chief. For days, I contacted numerous aldermen; unfortunately they did not want to speak to the press regarding the issue. Once I saw that was a dead end, I moved forward with another template. The one I chose was "Your Government's Numbers." I contacted the fire chief and asked him questions per the template. It took about 10 minutes on the phone, with one return phone call from the chief to confirm some information. I then went out and took a photo of the fire department to be included in the profile. I included this profile on our opinion page.
CALLOUTS IN PRINT: I used the same reader callouts in print as I did online. I anchored them on local pages in our publication.
FIRST IN PRINT IN PRINT: The First in Print graphic was anchored in the right hand corner of the nameplate with the brief explanation of what content was exclusive. I also anchored the graphic and explanation in our publishers box.
Have your readers noticed a difference? What do they think?
The readers have noticed a difference. I have received numerous compliments on the changes with the Inner Circle items.
What was hardest? What was easiest?
Being a one-person newsroom, the hardest thing about making Inner Circle was making the time to get started. It helped me to make a personal goal of when I wanted it to be accomplished. Once I got the flow of the projects, it all came easy to me.
What advice do you have for a newspaper that hasn't completed any part of the Inner Circle requirements?
My advice would be to get organized with your plan. Take one step at a time so you don't become overwhelmed with the projects. Incorporate the items into your daily routine, and it will become second nature.
Utilize your resources within the community. When you are out in the public always be thinking about Inner Circle items. I was at an event this past weekend, where I got a story and photo for the newspaper and three photo galleries for the web. I also approached individuals I saw taking photos and requested their photos for reader-submitted photo galleries. They were more than happy to comply. From that I gained three more galleries. Listen to people when in general conversation; you may be able to pull a profile from it. I was in conversation with someone, and he began to talk about an issue with a city sidewalk in front of his business. The first thing that came to my mind was the "what's your problem" profile. I explained the profile to him, and he was more than willing to be a part of it.
In my opinion, becoming Inner Circle certified has become a wonderful thing for our newspaper. It really incorporates the community in a very personal way. From doing the profiles, I have learned a lot of things about the organizations that I did not know previously. Now I have a record of such items that can easily be accessed for information to be included into stories in the future if necessary.