Finding money to train staff is a big problem at small newspapers. The thoughtful and encouraging responses included tips, case histories and handouts. The committee plans to compile these ideas and others, and provide them to ASNE members. In the meantime, here is a sampling of ideas that work.
Turnover is painful at community newspapers when local knowledge goes walking out the door.
Dick Schneider of The Jackson Sun in Tennessee has a suggestion. We pack up the staff for a half-day bus tour, with doughnuts and drinks, he said. Local historians serve as moderators, staffers ask questions and everyone leaves the bus with a sharpened sense of their community and its history. The police reporter would give the death tour, pointing out the sites of the city s most notable murders. The program teams staff members who have mastered skills in a particular area with other staffers who want to develop similar expertise.