American Consolidated Media, home to more than 80 print and digital publications in nine states, recently launched the Digital Reporter Project as a way to allow reporters to provide news updates on their newspaper's websites from the field using an iPad2 workstation.

The project, led by Rick Rogers, director of product development with ACM, put an iPad2 workstation in the hands of 10 reporters in nine different news operations. The reporters are taking part in a 90-day beta test to see if the mobile workstation, complete with wi-fi and 3G data plan access, will allow them to post more content to their newspaper's website from the field as news happens.

The 10 reporters have a varying degree of digital news experience, and are based at both small-to-midsize market daily and weekly newspapers.

"I am as excited about this program as the employees that were chosen to participate," said Randy Cope, chief executive officer for American Consolidated Media. "Their enthusiasm reinforces my confidence that ACM can be a leader at moving toward the next generation of community journalism. What I love seeing is how those in this pilot program have already found ways to use the iPads in a way we hadn't thought of. They know what they want to do and are finding ways to do it with the iPad."

The iPad2 workstations come complete with applications that will assist them in providing quality print and digital news from the field. The reporters will shoot, edit and post video using the iPad2 HD video camera and iMovie editing software.

"The goal of this beta test is to see if a reporter can take advantage of a tool like an iPad2 and be able to do all their job functions solely with that workstation," said Rogers, who conducted day-long training seminars with the 10 reporters involved in the project along with training with the entire newsrooms at each paper on the company's "Digital First. Print Best" content strategy. "One content strategy states very clearly that we want our reporters to provide the basic details on our websites as news happens, and follow up those initial reports with what print newspapers have been doing well for for more than a century - detailed, in-depth reporting. It is no secret the digital reader and the print reader are two different species, and we at ACM feel these iPad2 workstations will be a good first step to allow our reporters to be able to feed both sectors of our readership the news they want."

Rogers continued, "It is my vision for this test that each reporter will be able to increase their time spent in the field gathering content by at least 30 to 50 percent because they will have complete mobility and be able to submit news back to the office from anywhere they can get cell service. We want our reporters in the office as little as possible. News doesn't take place at their desks, it takes place in their communities."

The project has already had its share of success stories. In Stephenville, Texas, Empire-Tribune reporter Micah Moore used his iPad2 workstation the afternoon after training to cover a grass and structure fire in a nearby community. Texas is currently struggling with extreme drought conditions, and the threat of wildfires as a result of the weather.

Moore used his mobile workstation to file a story for the website immediately from the scene, as well as using it to shoot, edit and and post a video report on the incident.

He did it all from his car at the scene of the fire.

During Hurricane Irene on the East Coast, the staff of the Cecil Whig, based in Elkton, Md., posted more than 25 updates on how the storm was affecting local residents on that Sunday, as well as several video reports. Josh Shannon, a reporter with the Cecil Whig involved in the project, played a major role in the newspaper's hurricane coverage.

The 10 reporters involved in ACM's Digital Reporter Project are: Moore (Stephenville, Texas, Empire-Tribune), Matthew Cardenas (Alice, Texas, Echo News), Peggy Kiefer (Grove, Okla., Sun), Becca Newell (Easton, Md. Star-Democrat), Josh Shannon (Elkton, Md., Cecil Whig), Jason Arkley (Athens, Ohio, Messenger), Joe Higgins (Athens, Ohio, Messenger), Jason Groth (Grand Rapids, Minn., Herald-Review), Anna Kruth (Hibbing, Minn., Daily Tribune), and Meredith Jensen (Vinton County, Ohio, Courier).

American Consolidated Media is based in Irving, Texas.

American Consolidated Media welcomed Scott Wright to its team in June 2011 as regional operations director for the Southwest region.

As regional operations director, Wright leads operations at ACM's central Texas, northeast Oklahoma and southeast Kansas properties. Those properties include the Stephenville (TX) Empire-Tribune, The Waxahachie (TX) Daily Light, the Brownwood (TX) Bulletin, the Glen Rose (TX) Reporter, the Miami (OK) News-Record, Grove (OK) Sun, Delaware County (OK) Journal; and the Cherokee County (KS) News-Advocate.

Wright will be based out of the Stephenville, Texas, office. He brings with him years of proven experience in the communication industry as well as a desire to join the communities he serves.

'I am excited to have Scott join our company,' said Randy Cope, chief executive officer of American Consolidated Media. 'Scott's proven leadership abilities will help us as we move ACM toward a new era of community journalism.'

Most recently, Wright served as president and chief operating officer of the Journal Register Co., which is located in two top-10 markets, Philadelphia and Detroit, and prominent in Connecticut, and the greater Cleveland and New York areas.

"The newspaper industry is changing dramatically, and I'm looking forward to seeing our news teams develop into 24-hour information providers in our digital endeavors while still publishing great community newspapers," Wright said.

Wright is a graduate of the University of Southern Indiana, where he earned his bachelor's degree in communications.

After obtaining his degree, Wright worked his way up through the newspaper industry, gaining experience in nearly every facet of the business.

Wright has served as an account executive, major account manager, sales development manager, retail advertising manager, advertising director, corporate advertising director, vice president/general manager and president/publisher.

He served as vice president and general manager of The Oakland Press, under the ownership of 21st Century Newspapers, prior to the sale of the newspaper to Journal Register Company. He later returned in an expanded role, being named president and chief operating officer in October, 2007.

But Wright's experiences are more than a resume. He said through his time in the industry, he has learned success is measured by a single group of people.

'At the end of the day, it's not about what I want in our newspapers and digital endeavors or even what our employees want, it's about what the community wants,' Wright said. 'The community will grade us every day with page views and newspaper subscription and advertising purchases. It's our job to provide the content the community wants and to make sure cash registers of our advertisers are ringing.'

The Waxahachie Daily Light newsroom was honored with six awards for journalism excellence during the annual Texas Associated Press Managing Editors annual convention held last weekend in Austin. Awards were presented for outstanding work in the field of newspaper journalism in the state ofTexas for work published in 2008. The Daily Light competed in the organization's Class A daily division, open to daily newspapers with a circulation less than 10,000.

Among the honors, Daily Light Managing Editor JoAnn Livingston swept the Freedom of Information category, winning first, second and third place.

The first place award was presented for coverage of the 2008 election. "The Waxahachie Daily Light staff is the pit bull that won't let go. They don't just use the Freedom of Information laws to reveal information. They also follow up the information with analysis and hard questioning in pursuit of the truth. This is the kind of dogged journalism that will save this industry," noted Ken Tingley of the Post-Star, who judged this year's Freedom of Information entries.
The second place award was earned for "Crime and Punishment," a numbers-based story about the disposition of sexual assault cases in Ellis County.

The third place award was presented for coverage of the Ellis County sheriff's primary race. Daily Light Editor Neal White received second place honors in the Photojournalism category for his work covering the Ellis County Honor Flight trip in Washington, D.C. White also earned honorable mention honors in the Comment and Criticism category for his automotive reviews. It was his sixth APME award in this category.

White also earned honorable mention honors in the Sports Feature category for his work covering members of the WHS Indians baseball team as they prepared to enter college.

"I'm very proud of our news team and want to extend my congratulations to Neal and JoAnn for their well-deserved recognition," said Ray Pike, vice president and publisher of Waxahachie Newspapers Inc. "Among our peers in the newspaper industry, WNI has gained a reputation as being an outstanding news organization, one synonymous with excellence in journalism. "We all believe the communities we serve deserve the best newspaper in the state of Texas. Neal, JoAnn and the entire WNI news team put in a great deal of time and effort in producing newspapers Ellis County can be proud of," Pike said. During the past 11 years, the Daily Light news team has earned more than 225 awards for excellence in journalism from various state newspaper organizations.

Both White and Livingston have received multiple APME awards each year during their tenure with the Daily Light..

Takes 2nd place in General Excellence Staff Report Alice Echo-News Journal

The Alice Echo-News Journal earned six awards in the annualTexas Press Association's annual Better Newspaper Contest. Each member of theJournal news staff earned an award.

The newspaper received a second-place award in GeneralExcellence, which evaluates the content a newspaper from front to back. TheJournal had to supply copies of newspapers from random dates selected by TPA.

Judges comments included, "Papers do reflect the community."

Christopher Maher and Ofelia Garcia Hunter received secondplace in news photography. Maher's photo featured firemen leaving the scene ofa fire, while Hunter's featured an arrest. Judges wrote, "Excellent news photo,well composed with emotion and weariness evident," in reference to Maher'sphoto.

Nicole D. Perez and Pete Garcia earned a second-place awardfor page design.

The special edition "10-0" Coyote newspaper published anddistributed after the Coyotes went undefeated in district play last fall earneda fourth-place award in the Blue Moon contest, which is for out-of-the-ordinarysections produced by newspapers. The section was written and designed by PeteGarcia.

Perez, Garcia and publisher Tony Morris earned afourth-place award for headline writing. Judges wrote the headlines were cleverattention-getters.

Hunter and Mauricio Julian Cuellar Jr. earned a fourth-placenews writing award as well for coverage of last year's bank robbery in Aliceand a story about an assault victim now residing in a nursing home seekingjustice.

The Journal competes in the daily division againstnewspapers with a circulation of 7,000 and under.

Athens (OH) Messenger reporters Jason Arkley and Joe Higgins, along with Meredith Jensen of the Vinton County (OH) Courier, were highlighted as members of the ACM Digital Reporter Project by the Ohio Newspaper Association.

Here is a link to the story on the ONA website: http://www.ohionews.org/2011/10/06/digital-reporter-project-taps-three-ohio-writers

American Consolidated Media is pleased to announce the launch of the Digital Reporter Project 2.0.

As the 90-day beta test winds down for the first phase of the Digital Reporter Project at the end of November, ACM Newsroom plans to deploy 11 more digital workstations into the field.

The goal to have all 11 digital workstations deployed and launched in the field by the end of January 2012.

This will give ACM 21 digital reporters in the field, armed with iPad2 workstations with the goal to create more unique digital content for our websites, as well as providing timely reports from the field to post as breaking news bulletins online and to include in our print products.

"We are extremely excited to announce the next class of the Digital Reporter Project," said Rick Rogers, director of product development with ACM. "There is no doubting the impact the first 10 reporters have had on their news operations and products. The workstations have not only provided more digital content and enhanced print information from our reporters involved in the project, but they have also helped change the culture in our newsrooms. We are seeing more reporters, not directly involved in the project, understand the need to provide not only great print content, but unique digital content as well.

"This is why I am very excited to announce the launch of 11 more reporters, and the addition of several new markets in the Digital Reporter Project 2.0."

Each digital reporter will receive an iPad2 workstation with a cell data plan, as well as a bluetooth keyboard case and other accessories.

The reporter class for ACM's Digital Reporter Project 2.0 are:

• • Brad Keith, sports editor, Stephenville (TX) Empire-Tribune
• • Pete Garcias, sports editor, Alice (TX) Echo News
• • Ofelia Garcia Hunter, Alice (TX) Echo-News Journal
• • Rochelle Hawk, editor, Logan (Ohio) Daily News
• • Jennifer Hughes, reporter, Jackson (Ohio) Times Journal
• • Chuck Ristano, sports editor, Cecil Whig (Elkton, MD)
• • Mark Corrigan, Newark (Del.) Post
• • Sara Nemec, reporter, Ashland (Wisc.) Daily Press
• • Frank Zufall, Spooner (Wisc.) Advocate
• • Jesse White, Mesabi Daily News, Virginia MN
• • Pedro Perez, Valley Town Crier, McAllen, TX

 

Check back with ACM Newsroom soon for bio information on each new member of the Digital Reporter Project 2.0 class and updates on their progress as the workstations are deployed.

Congratulations, Digital Reporter Project 2.0 class!
Here is a link to the story: http://acmnewsroom.com/2011/11/16/acm-announces-digital-reporter-project-2-0-10-more-reporters-to-receive-digital-workstations/