"Community is everything. We believe a town-and-school blog, especially in a community as tight-knit as Hershey, will generate sustained interest…."

The Beat: Hershey Pennsylvania. Covering the town in Hershey, central Penn. town.

The Reporter: Daniel Victor, staff reporter, The Patriot News.

Descripotion: David Newhouse, executive editor of Patriot News writes…

We would like to enthusiastically volunteer The Patriot-News in
Harrisburg, PA for your "beat reporting with a social network" project.
We have been aggressively pursuing 24/7 reporting for nearly two years.
On an average weekday, we post about 40 live news, sports, business and
entertainment items, over and above the articles and listings from the
day’s print newspaper. Our reporters are equipped with laptops and the
means to be completely mobile. We take great pride in breaking news
first, beating TV or (in the case of state government, as we’re the
state capital) AP to the punch. We recently broke the story that the
CEO of Hershey Foods had resigned, and our staff crowed about the fact
that we beat everyone online with the story, including the WSJ by one
minute!

At the same time, we have had limited success in reaching the
community with a more interactive reporting model. Our web site has
open forums that are busy but often like a (slightly drunk)
conversation in a bar. The comment feature on stories generates limited
feedback.

We would propose to have our reporter, Dan Victor, create a social
network around his regular beat of the town and schools of Hershey.
This may seem like a conservative or unimaginative choice. However, we
have created public blogs around topics and found that interest tends
to dwindle after a while. In central Pennsylvania, people are
passionate about where they live. Community is everything. It is THE
social network. We believe a town-and-school blog, especially in a
community as tight-knit as Hershey, will generate sustained interest
because it taps into a network of true stakeholders.

The Patriot-News Team: (1. Daniel Victor, beat reporter
(2. David Newhouse and Cate Barron, executive and managing editors
(3. Alan Hayakawa, online editor
(4. Tom Barstow, business editor
(5. Mike Freeley and Ron Soutwick, city editor and assistant city editor
(6. Tom Dochat and Sharon Smith, business reporters