We’re raising a journalism army

I’ve made a habit of saying the Jay County’s wrestling program has an “army” of assistant coaches.

Anyone who has been to a Jay County High School wrestling match or tournament will understand what I’m talking about. If you’re chatting with one coach and turn around, you’ll see a few more. Another pair will be on the mat shouting instructions to a wrestler. A few more will be spread across the gym.

Usually, even more are spread across the state (or multiple states) guiding other athletes in various elementary school, middle school or club tournaments. 

It’s a pretty impressive and extensive operation.

I describe all of that to say this:

It’s time for The Graphic Printing Company to start an “army” of its own.

When we purchased The News-Gazette (Winchester), The News Times (Hartford City) and Red Ball (a weekly advertising circular) in May, we knew it would take some time to evaluate how everything worked in our new reality and then to make decisions about how to move forward. Now we’re ready.

Here are our plans to create our army:

1) We’re looking to hire an additional full-time reporter. This has been in the works for a while. The new position will be focused on coverage of Randolph County but, like our existing staff, will rotate through all of our properties in order to provide the necessary coverage.

2) Develop a crew of freelancers. That term can be confusing, so let’s clear it up. A freelancer doesn’t work for free. A freelancer is someone who gets paid on a per-job or per-task basis. For us, that would be a per-story or per-photo assignment basis. This is an opportunity to get more coverage across all of our newspapers. With a relatively small staff, it can be difficult to attend all of the meetings and events we would like to include in the newspaper, but we also don’t necessarily need more full-time help. If we’re able to cultivate a group of freelancers, it will allow us to reach beyond what we’re currently capable of covering. I’ve already started to reach out to some who I feel might fit these roles well, particularly in the area of photography.

3) Launch a high school journalist training program. This is moving forward via a pilot run with one student this month. The idea is to offer local students the opportunity to learn about journalism — what we do here, Associated Press style, online training and mentoring through the story-writing (or photography) process — with a goal of developing freelancers, interns and potential future employees.

When we purchased the additional newspapers last year, I thought about what else might be possible in the future. Expansion into northeast Delaware County seemed like a possible next step. It was a long-term option, possibly part of a five-year plan.

But things change.

There is currently a coverage gap in Delaware County. We’re going to try to fill at least some of it and, in fact, have already started to do so.

At the wrestling state finals a few weeks back, I did some light coverage (photos only) of Delta athletes when I had down time between our Jay County and Union City competitors. Andrew Balko did the same at the boys swimming sectional.

We opened it up further last week with coverage of the Eagles’ run to a second consecutive boys basketball sectional championship.

So far, it has been online-only coverage. That will change Saturday with regional boys basketball.

We’re going to add coverage of northeast Delaware County to The News Times beginning March 13. We’re also going to do a test-run of adding Wapahani coverage to The News-Gazette. (Southeast Delaware County was in the even longer-term plans, but the fact that the Raiders and Delta play at the same regional site opened the door to do this pretty easily for at least one weekend.)

In some ways, we may be moving too fast. This type of move being part of a five-year plan would have allowed for more preparation and logistical evaluation.

But sometimes when opportunity presents itself you have to decide whether you’re going to reach out and grab it or let it pass you by. We’re attempting to seize the day.

The expansion will be gradual. We can’t do everything at once. It takes time to raise an army. And there will certainly be challenges.

But The Graphic Printing Company is committed.

So, if you like to write and want to try your hand at reporting on local government, covering a sporting event or putting together a feature story, let me know. If you enjoy photography and are interested in making a little extra money on the side, let me know. (Training in all areas will be provided.) You can stop in at our headquarters (309 W. Main St., Portland), call (260) 726-8141 or email [email protected].

We hope to build out our army over the course of the next few weeks and months, with continued growth beyond.

At some point we want to be just like that Jay County wrestling coaching staff — every time you turn around, you see one of us there.