With Patch launching several sites in Long Island towns, Newsday is hiring 37 people to beef up its local coverage. The new positions include reporters, community journalists, a social media moderator and a community editor.
“Many initiatives will increase town and local coverage in print and provide our online audience with more updates and faster coverage of breaking news around the clock,” wrote editor-in-chief Debby Krenek in a memo. Krenek said they’re hiring community journalists “who will hit Long Island’s streets in search of local features and personalities that define each community as we launch hundreds of hyperlocal pages later this month.”
Newsday is the first newspaper we’ve seen aggressively ramp up coverage as the local competition intensifies. One interesting thing to watch: Newsday.com is subscription-only — subscribers of the newspaper and Optimum Online are given access — which could put it at a disadvantage in building open community tools that can reach critical mass.
