By Doug Fisher, Instructor,
USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications
The Hartsville Messenger, a twice-a-week newspaper with a staff of five, has its hands full trying to cover an area of about 20,000 people around Hartsville, S.C. So in 2005-06 it partnered with the University of South Carolina to launch a web site both to give its staff a place to publish community news more quickly and to give the community a place for some citizen-generated content. The effort was funded by J-Lab’s New Voices project.
They came up with HartsvilleToday.com — plus a 72-page “cookbook” (see Resources box on the right) that details what they did and how they did it, sprinkled with advice from their learning curve. While it’s a guide for small daily and non-daily newspapers, the lessons apply to anyone seeking to start up a community news project.
The site has since become part of The Hartsville Messenger.
Some Do’s
- Include an events calendar.
- Allow photo posting.
- Recruit endlessly.
- Budget for training.
- Update daily.
- Get a good weather “bug.”
- Expect to spend $10,000 to start up.
- Remember Pareto’s Principle: 20 percent of the people will do 80 percent of the work.
Key Choices
- Will the site be edited?
- Who will monitor posts?
- Must people post under their real names or may they use screen names?
Contents
Executive summary
Future of journalism
Hartsville Today – At a glance
Site creation
Advice for small newspapers
Recruiting, training
Sales
Technology
Freelancer agreement
Content analysis