Despite the slim down of newspapers, Birmingham, Alabama-based Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. (CNHI) is continuing to pay for investigative stories in its 90 plus daily newspapers using corporate resources, since the small papers would not be able to supply in-depth reporting themselves.

This program, started two years ago, is called the Elite Report-ing Fellowship Program, and is headed by Bill Ketter, CNHI's vice president of news. The first report was on April 2006, a three-part series on gambling addicts. Following series dealt with topics such as the "Interstate Highway System's crumbling infrastructure." All stories have a national focus, "a direct relevancy to communities," according to Ketter, and emphasis on human interest.

"We felt very strongly that good journalism is good business," says Ketter. "There's been so much negative publicity in our craft about the demise of in-depth journalism, and this more vigorous journalism has almost been eliminated. [The fellowship] creates a regular flow of high public service journalism."
 
The Fellowship program accepts applications from all CNHI reporters. Once accepted, the reporter is assigned a topic and released from newsroom duties for the duration of the project, which can last from a month to six weeks. They are supplied with audio and video equipment, which their papers can keep as benefits.

The program has also influenced many of CNHI's papers to incorporate more multimedia. The Iowa based Ottumwa Courier is now listing multimedia and live blogging as a priority.

"I'm a believer in the watchdog role of the press," Ketter says. "We're a guide dog and we're a watchdog. Every newspaper, no matter how small, has to fulfill those roles."

The stories are also available on the websites, accompanied by graphics and videos.


Source: AJR through IFRA Executive News Service