Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., adding Washington, D.C.-based correspondent

While many newspapers are drifting away from national news, The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., announced that next year it will add a Washington, D.C.-based reporter, Benjamin Mullin reports for Poynter. Executive editor Mitch Pugh said the newspaper, which covered the effects in Washington, D.C., of the June murders of nine African Americans at a historic church in Charleston and the arrest of a white suspect who had ties to hate groups, could have "benefited from having a seasoned hand in Washington, D.C., to hold down its Beltway coverage."

Pugh told Mullin, “It would have been nice to have someone up there who had those sources and was able to help us out with that." Pugh said the new hire "will allow the newspaper to give readers a South Carolina take on Washington news whenever there’s a 'a gap in coverage' in the larger D.C. press corps." He told Mullin, “Our goal is to have the person focus on things that matter to South Carolinians and matter to people in the South. We’re not going to chase the story of the day; we’re not going to be writing the same thing that the AP is writing. We’re going to be looking for ways to make our coverage different, make our coverage stand out a little bit from what everyone else is doing." (Read more)