Imagine you are managing a downsized, metro, state capital newsroom. Within four weeks, your newsroom covers once-in-a-generation tornado devastation, a school shooting that takes the lives of six individuals, a legislature that expels two minority members erupting into a globally watched real-time protest, the crash of two Black Hawk helicopters that took nine lives at nearby Fort Campbell and the passage of several local and statewide anti-LBGTQ bills, one that bans the performance of drag shows. Additionally, you are assigning reporters, shooters, and editors while operating on a hybrid schedule where not all in your newsroom work within a single location. Finally, add to that the fact that your newsroom not only has to feed multi-platform, real-time content to your statewide audience, but you are also under a mandate to act as the regional hub for a national network with all their readers turning their attention to the community you report on.
Well, you don’t have to imagine what that single month of journalism would be like because that was the real-life scenario that the Tennessean Editor Michael Anastasi and his management team continue to experience in Nashville, TN.
In this 183rd episode of E&P reports, we speak with the newsroom management team of the Tennessean in Nashville, Tennessean and explore four weeks of their hectic world reporting on deadly tornadoes, a school shooting that took the lives of six people (including three children), the state legislature expelling two minority representatives and the subsequent protests, the crash of two Black Hawk helicopters along with having to report on various anti LBTGQ bill passages. We'll ask how they covered these stories in a downsized, hybrid newsroom environment while simultaneously feeding the USA Today Network. Appearing are Editor Michael Anastasi, News Director Ben Goad, Breaking News Editor Gary Estwick, Content Strategist and City Editor Liz Shoebauer, Politics and Investigation Editor Duane Gang, along with Director of Multimedia Projects Ayrik Whitney and Visuals Director Jeremy Harmon.
