1) The document discusses enterprise reporting, which examines systemic issues beyond daily headlines to understand why events happen. 2) It provides tips for enterprise reporting with limited resources, including breaking large topics into smaller pieces published over time, focusing coverage on important franchise topics, and turning to readers for story ideas and FOIA requests. 3) A case study describes how four Illinois newspapers collaborated on a monthly series examining the state's budget issues, with each paper responsible for one story segment and all content shared across papers.

1. enterprise reporting
is alive and well
GATEHOUSE NEWS & INTERACTIVE DIVISION
Call-in: 888.251.2909; Code: 585.851.9696

2. ENTERPRISE
Today’s host
MIKE TURLEY
Content team manager — Large Daily Division
GateHouse Media News & Interactive
585.851.9696
mturley@gatehousemedia.com
Twitter: @ml_turley
• Call-in: 888.251.2909; Code: 585.851.9696
• Please silence your phones
• Do not hesitate to ask questions

3. ENTERPRISE
• Define enterprise reporting
Perception often does not match reality. Seriously,
enterprise work happens every day in some fashion.
• Management
From time to staffing, where do you find the
resources?
• Fact-gathering and reporting
Tips to help set the stage for enterprise efforts.
• Case study
How four papers joined forces to bring Illinois
budget woes into the spotlight.

4. ENTERPRISE
Defining enterprise
• Boldness or readiness in undertaking;
adventurous spirit; ingenuity
• A watchdog approach to reporting that goes
beyond covering daily events. It is a type of
reporting that examines the forces dictating the
events.
• Any story that moves beyond the headline of the
day and makes WHY the most important of the five
Ws: Why did this happen?

5. ENTERPRISE
“Change has become
the new normal in
the world of work. A new approach
Change is a
constant, driven by
• Enterprise reporting does not
two major forces: need to take large blocks of time
the economy and
technology. If you
out of the newsroom or from a
want to reporter’s weekly schedule.
build, maintain, and
improve your • Enterprise reporting does not
workplace, you have mean you have to let the daily
to become adept at
not just coverage slip.
managing, but
leading change.”
• Enterprise reporting can become
part of the daily routine and not
— Work Happy; What
Great Bosses Know / Jill
an occasional endeavor leading
Geisler into contest season.

6. ENTERPRISE
“Instead of
emphasizing only A little bit goes a long ways
ambitious projects
that can take
months, quick-hit • Instead of running a massive
investigations, blo project that takes months of
gs, consumer-
focused watchdog
resources and time, break the
stories, and topic into bite-size pieces.
searchable
databases are • Publish the work in print and on
stressed.”
the Web as the information is
— Mark Katches gathered. This will drive interest
/editorial director for
the Center for in the topic and keep it in the
Investigative Reporting
public eye.

7. ENTERPRISE
“Newsrooms will be
less about the day’s
news — much of Find the hot topic
which has already
been taken out of
• Recognize and focus on three
our hands by the 24- franchise topics to strengthen
hour, minute-by-
minute news cycle —
your brand.
and become more
like a war room, or a • Create a beat out of the
science lab, where
teams of researchers franchise topic or go beyond the
think about how to routine coverage of an existing
contextualize, prese
nt, illustrate, and beat to write enterprise stories.
spread key
information, whether
it happened that day • Drill deep and find the systemic
or not .” problem, issue.
— Heidi Moore / U.S.
finance and economics
editor of The Guardian

8. ENTERPRISE
“As editor, I must ‘Beat’ strategy
consider whether
each segment will
offer fresh insights. I
• Identify and prioritize story
also need to weigh segments.
whether our
reporters — and • Set aggressive deadlines to
ultimately our
readers — will be complete these segments.
able to make sense
of the parts of the • Modify story plans as reporters
story without
understanding the
build on their knowledge.
whole.”
• Have reporters be expected to
— Lois Norder,
investigative editor at the
“own” the topic and cover
Atlanta Journal-Constitution related news developments.

9. ENTERPRISE
“Encourage By the numbers
readers to become • Smaller staff means fewer
part of your FOIA
army. … List reporters to keep an eye on the
sample FOIA big stories; therefore …
letters on your
website, and ask
readers to provide
• … Turn to the public for tips and
you with ideas.” suggestions, concerns and
complaints. What seems
— Tips about FOIA
filings / Rob Walters insignificant may be significant.
• File FOIA requests. You never
know what will surface.

10. ENTERPRISE
“We turn to social
media during news
Gathering the facts:
events for immediate Make complex issues
updates and
eyewitness understandable
accounts, constantly
refreshing and trolling • Determine best approach to
for every possible bit
of news and finding sources and gathering
commentary. There information
isn’t a major event
that we can’t visualize
through social trends. • Prioritize: Make a list; do the
But in our fixation on most difficult things first.
immediacy, we’re
missing opportunities • It is great to be ambitious, but
to tell a larger story
through social wise to be realistic.
means.”
• Updates on social media will help
— Amanda Zamora / senior
engagement editor, develop direction of story.
ProPublica

11. ENTERPRISE
“In today’s unsettled Questions to ask … yourself
news
environment, watchd
og reporting
• Through whose eyes am I
also is necessary for telling this story?
our survival. It sets
professional • Who has something at stake?
journalists
apart from bloggers • What’s going to happen next?
and cell phone
videographers, provi • What’s the story really about?
ding
added value that
readers and viewers
• Where should the story begin?
simply can’t get
anywhere • Ultimately, find out, Why?
else.”
— IREPORT / cnn.com
— Redefining a
Newspaper’s Watchdog
Approach / Les Zaitz and
Brent Walth

12. ENTERPRISE
“Enterprise stories
are always at risk Suggestions
during periods of
retrenchment.
They take • Governmental coverage;
time, and as the readers are more interested and
staff shrinks, it’s passionate during economic
tempting to forgo downtimes about how their tax
them to
concentrate on the
dollars are spent.
meat and
potatoes.” • Local law enforcement and
other officials
— Rem Rieder, senior
vice president,
American Journalism • School administrators and
Review
board members

13. ENTERPRISE
Determine the
areas where you
Define what is important
can strengthen to your readers and community
coverage through
enterprise
reporting. Journal Star
Do a quick time crime
audit: How much reporter Matt
time do you spend
each day on
Buedel
what’s important? reported on
Build time into misconduct
each day to work
on what’s
in the Peoria
important. How Police
much time? That Department.
is up to you.
—

14. ENTERPRISE
Case study: Deadbeat Illinois
• Four newspapers in Illinois have joined forces
to give in-depth coverage of the state’s budget woes.

15. ENTERPRISE
Deadbeat Illinois
• Each newspaper is responsible for
generating one story segment of the
overall theme of the state falling
short on paying its bills to
individuals, businesses, schools and
third-party vendors.
The Register-Mail in Galesburg, Ill.

16. ENTERPRISE
Deadbeat Illinois series
• The stories are available to any
GateHouse-owned newspaper in the
state.
“This series is a great credit to the editors and
writers at each paper. We have a schedule, and
everyone is making deadline. … I can see us using
this model to tell another statewide story.”
Bob Heisse, executive editor
The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill.

17. ENTERPRISE
Deadbeat Illinois series
• A new story focusing on a specific
example of the real-world effects of the
state’s failure to pay its bill appears
every Monday in print and online.
“Each reporter needs about six to eight hours to
report and write, which isn't that bad given that we
have to do them just once a month. I think it works
best when we keep stories to 10 to 12 inches with a
photo and a breakout box. Any longer and I think you
have the chance to lose the reader.”
— Dennis Anderson, executive editor, Peoria Journal Star

18. ENTERPRISE
Deadbeat Illinois series
• The Better Government Association
in Chicago, www.bettergov.org, has
expressed interest in a partnership
with the papers as they work on
future systemic issues associated
with state and local government.
The Rockford Register Star

19. ENTERPRISE
Deadbeat
on Facebook
• The creation of
a Deadbeat
Illinois Facebook
page has helped
the enterprise
effort gain
traction. More
than 800 people
have “liked” the
page.

20. ENTERPRISE
Pressure is on
• This week the
press secretary for
the Senate
president asked
the newspapers for
a compilation of
Deadbeat stories
as the Senate calls
for a special
committee on
unpaid bills.

21. ENTERPRISE
Taking care of business
Tend to the daily assignments as
quickly as possible so you can
spend more time on the important
things.
“Think about how to tell the story. Don’t follow the crowd.”
— Mark Konkol, Pulitzer Prize winner, Chicago Sun-Times

22. ENTERPRISE
“Change requires
us to learn new Next steps:
skills and to let go
of past practices If you are an editor …
and assumptions.
But changing our • Find, develop and fine-tune the
customs doesn’t franchise topics.
necessarily mean
abandoning core
values.” • Determine what coverage you
can alter, do with less or give
— Jill Geisler, Poynter
Institute
up completely.
• Dedicate time and resources;
stay committed to the cause.

23. ENTERPRISE
“We owe it to the Next steps:
importance of our If you are a reporter …
journalistic mission
to consider and
reconsider all • Embrace new approach; learn
options, all everything you can about the
opportunities for topic.
positive change.
Frankly, that
rethinking, and that
• Drill deep; Ask, “Why is this
re-creation, will happening?”
happen whether we
want it to or not. • Break coverage into segments;
The question is stay committed to the cause.
whether we do it
ourselves.”
• Use all of your delivery platforms
— Richard Gingras / to disseminate the content.
head of news and social
products at Google

24. enterprise reporting
is alive and well
GATEHOUSE NEWS & INTERACTIVE DIVISION