During the last 12 months, we have tried to make investments in the newsroom.
We took a part-time position to full time, hired a full-time photographer, and hired a part-time copy editor, who will now be moving to full-time. We also have increased the training budget and invested in some new equipment (we currently are working through replacing all photography and video equipment).
The morning before our restructuring began, the DNJ’s newsroom was larger than it was a year ago.
When our restructuring is complete, it will still be larger than it was a year ago.
Yesterday, we began posting newly created news positions and by this weekend, we will be advertising for five such positions.
A priority is a part-time copy editor. He will be supplementing the work of the full-time copy editor and the two will handle the bulk of production associated with the print product seven nights per week. They will also be working with Rutherford AM and Smyrna AM, print products that reach a combined 65,000 homes weekly.
We are also advertising for three multimedia journalists to work in news and sports. These people will have to be very skilled at shooting and editing video and photos as well as writing for print and the web. They’ll need to be able to create interactive charts and graphs using various Google tools and they’ve got to be awfully good at social media.
A fifth position is a bit of a hybrid. The person will need to be able to perform many of the same tasks as the multimedia journalist, covering a lot of events and activities, but will have an even greater digital focus. This person will help with a great deal of web work and should have stronger skills in database journalism, interactive elements, and similar tasks. If they can do some coding work, that would be a major plus.
And we are continuing our commitment to training. We are continuing to upgrade necessary equipment such as cameras. We will continue to operate the largest local news operation in Rutherford County and provide more local content than anyone else.
And we’ll do it in print seven days a week, as well as on the web, the tablet, and mobile devices.