W orking together is becoming easier every day at Gannett. Newspaper to newspaper. Newspaper to TV station. Station to station. All to online. The relationships are enhancing coverage for our audiences and creating value for the company. 

Our newspaper groups in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana and New Jersey have found that readers and advertis- ers simply get more when the newspapers work together. 

In Indiana, the Palladium-Item at Richmond, The Star Press at Muncie and the Chronicle-Tribune at Marion in 2001 produced a four-part series, “Taxing Indiana.” The newspapers took a comprehensive look at the likely impact of court-ordered tax reform in the state. 

When Miller Park, home to Wisconsin’s Milwaukee Brewers, debuted in spring 2001, The Post-Crescent at Appleton, Wis., and the Green Bay (Wis.) Press-Gazette pooled their talents to provide readers of all 10 Wisconsin papers with in-depth sto- ries, photos and detailed graphics of the field’s grand opening. 

“The power of the arrangement is that it taps into the talent of multiple staffs,” says Carol Hunter, executive editor at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. 

Gannett-owned newspapers in Louisiana redoubled their group approach in all areas, from news coverage to their regional Internet site. This site, reallouisiana.com, takes entertainment stories from all five Louisiana newspapers and gives readers an in-depth view of the state’s entire entertain- ment scene. 

Gannett’s Digital Production Center at corporate headquar- ters in McLean, Va., is an online partner for Gannett’s smaller newspapers, helping them roll out and maintain their Web sites. The result has been the development of better, richer sites than the newspapers could create themselves, while also providing additional revenue opportunities. 

One of Gannett’s most successful collaborations is the part- nering of The Arizona Republic and KPNX-TV, both in Phoenix. 

Arizona’s largest daily teams with the state’s leading TV station and top Web site, azcentral.com, to provide up-to-the-minute news, perspectives on education, depth and insight into political coverage and broader sports coverage. The Phoenix conver- gence, which won Gannett’s 2001 IDEAS (Innovator Drive for Excellence) competition, is leading the way for Gannett into the multimedia future. 

USA TODAY LIVE, another collaboration among print, broadcast and online, grew and strengthened during the year. LIVE, which provides USA TODAY content to Gannett’s TV stations, will begin working with The Weather Channel in 2002. 

Finally, the events of Sept. 11 and their aftermath united Gannett’s newspapers and television stations at a crucial time. 

With The Journal News at Westchester County, N.Y., just 25 miles from the World Trade Center, reporters and editors from The News Journal at Wilmington, Del., The Indianapolis Star, The Cincinnati Enquirer and the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle journeyed to Westchester to augment The Journal News’ coverage of the attacks on New York City. The art director at the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal drove downstate to help with an in-depth graphic that ran in both newspapers. 

Gannett’s TV stations also worked as a team. Staff from stations in Cleveland, Atlanta and Greensboro, N.C., provided WUSA-TV at Washington, D.C., with quick help in covering the attack on the Pentagon. Cleveland’s WKYC-TV provided WUSA with a firsthand account of the crash of the hijacked airliner outside Pittsburgh. Atlanta’s WXIA-TV loaned the Washington station an additional satellite truck. “Because of WXIA, we were able to offer viewers live shots of the capital region and maintain coverage at the hospitals and at the memorial services that followed,” says Dave Roberts, vice president/news at WUSA. Greensboro’s WFMY provided WUSA with an exclusive interview with Virginia’s governor on the evening of Sept. 11. 

Connecting 

COVERAGE OF THE SEPT. 11 ATTACK ON THE PENTAGON BECAME A TEAM EFFORT AS SEVERAL GANNETT UNITS TURNED THEIR EFFORTS TO HELPING WUSA-TV AT WASHINGTON, D.C., SAYS DAVE ROBERTS, VICE PRESIDENT/NEWS AT WUSA-TV. SHOWN ON THE MONITORS BEHIND ROBERTS (TOPTO BOTTOM ): TRACEE WILKINS OF WFMY-TV AT GREENSBORO, N.C., AND JACK KELLEY OF USA TODAY. 

