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Our News Is Your News

The Tennessee Legislature is in, and TNReport.com doesn’t want your community to get left out!

(Nashville) -- TNReport.com News Service is offering its original news coverage and webvideos to small- and medium-sized newspapers, TV outlets and radio stations statewide.

Teaming with TNReport.com gives local news organizations with limited resources better tools for keeping tabs on locally elected lawmakers in the Tennessee General Assembly -- and without having to hire additional reporters or enter binding, overpriced contracts.

“Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our free society. And helping people stay informed about what their elected leaders are dong is an essential responsibility of the free press,” said TNReport’s editor and president, Mark Engler. “But running a news-gathering operation certainly isn’t free. If smaller, independent or community-based news organizations are going to prosper in the 21st Century, they must find innovative, cooperative and competitive ways to report the news Tennesseans need.”

Broadcast news outlets are already using TNReport.com’s groundbreaking coverage -- and influential Tennessee state political reporters and bloggers often link to TNReport’s videos and popular news website.

On any given day when the Legislature is in session, TNReport assigns more reporters to cover statehouse hearings and happenings than any other Capitol Hill Press Corps bureau. TNReport.com is striving to give smaller newspapers and radio stations a fresh and exclusive view to the action in the Tennessee Legislature.

Perhaps best of all, TNReport charges no cash fee to local news outlets for use of our content. Instead, TNReport.com asks that news outlets simply run small ads promoting TNReport’s website and soliciting donations to support TNReport’s nonprofit mission.

TNReport.com is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and runs entirely off grants and contributions from our audiences. TNReport is dedicated to improving the public’s understanding of policy and politics by dependably and credibly covering state government, legislative affairs and election campaigns in Tennessee.

CONTACT:
Mark Engler
Editor, TNReport.com News Service
markengler@tnreport.com
615-489-7006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Amelia Morrison Hipps, 615-442-8667

The News Leader in Parsons signs with Capitol Newswatch service

LEBANON, Tenn. — The News Leader in Parsons, Tenn., signed an agreement with Capitol Newswatch to receive customized coverage of their state legislators regarding issues that affect their readers in Decatur County.

“This is a valuable service that we need. My reporters focus on our local events and news, but our readers need to know what is happening in Nashville with their state elected officials,” said Danny Haynes, publisher. “I look forward to receiving their articles each week.”

“We are truly excited that The News Leader has joined our service, and that Mr. Haynes recognizes the value of what we offer,” said Amelia Morrison Hipps, executive editor/CEO.

Hipps explained that what sets Capitol Newswatch apart from other news services – both free and paid – is that “we provide customized, non-partisan articles direct from the General Assembly about a newspaper’s legislators.

“Other services do a great job of providing broad-stroke coverage of legislative events at the Capitol, and we applaud them for that. But we drill down and go to an individual newspaper’s representatives and senators, thereby customizing our reporting for that specific newspaper.”

Hipps said the newspapers who use Capitol Newswatch can request specific topics be covered, as The News Leader has done when it requested an article regarding education reform.

“In today’s economic climate, the ability of many smaller newspapers to report first-hand the actions of their state legislators, as well as key legislation that will affect their readers’ lives, is almost out of the question,” said Hipps. “These newspapers are running with “lean and mean” budgets and cannot afford to send reporters to the Tennessee General Assembly.

“It was that fact, combined with the realization that important legislation directly affecting citizens throughout Tennessee often goes unreported – or at best is under-reported through newsletters from legislators with their own spins on the issues – that prompted the launch of Capitol Newswatch LLC.”

ABOUT THE NEWS LEADER

The News Leader, a weekly newspaper published each Wednesday, has provided the news for Decatur County since 1926. For more information, go to www.readtheleader.com.

ABOUT CAPITOL NEWSWATCH

Capitol Newswatch is not an aggregate news service nor does it provide broad-stroke coverage of the legislative activities unless requested by its subscriber newspapers. Instead, its first obligation is to provide customized, non-partisan news articles about a newspaper’s legislators … newspapers can print in their print products and have posted on their websites and their Facebook pages.
Subscribers of Capitol Newswatch receive the following services:

· Customized, non-partisan coverage of your legislators’ bills, committee meetings, discussions and voting that will affect your readers, sent via email, written, edited and ready for publication.

· A RSS feed about each article posted directly to the newspaper’s website and Facebook page – when they want it posted.

· Updates from Capitol Newswatch's Twitter account @CapitolNews_TN that a newspaper’s readers can follow and that will direct them to their newspaper's website for more detailed customized, non-partisan news articles – according to the newspaper’s schedule

· Once the regular session of the Tennessee General Assembly ends, Capitol Newswatch’s non-partisan, customized reporting doesn’t. Laws are voted on during the regular session of the General Assembly, but they are hammered out throughout the year in committees. Capitol Newswatch will deliver continued coverage of committees and state government issues that include a newspaper’s local legislators’ input.

Capitol Newswatch gives you your own news bureau in Nashville at a truly affordable price. For more information, go to www.capitolnewswatch.com or email jahipps@capitolnewswatch.com.

Institute of Newspaper Technology
Knoxville

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