The Arkansas Presss Association has chosen five newspapers in the state for grants to hire an extra reporter for two years, at a salary of $35,000 a year, with the hope of improving news coverage.
The money will come from a $252,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and matching money of about $140,000 to be raised by the Arkansas Community Foundation, which thought up the idea. The "Write for Arkansas" program is designed "to provide more in-depth coverage of local issues," including economic development, Knight said in its January announcement. "The reporters will write articles for print and blog about their communities and experiences on a new Write for Arkansas Web site. The additional reporting staff will help Arkansas residents and leaders have a greater understanding of the state’s challenges and needs. Meanwhile, the project’s online component will chronicle local issues from across the state and open a new channel of communication allowing residents to participate in the news."
After a slow start, 26 papers applied. The grants were scattered regionally. The winners were the Madison County Record, Huntsville (northwest); Areawide Media, Salem (northeast); the Stuttgart Daily Leader (southeast); the Texarkana Gazette (southwest) and The Courier of Russellville (central). They are supposedm to have the reporters on the payroll by Aug. 1. (Read more)
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