Local publishing remains challenging: Maintaining the highest standards with limited resources and meeting or exceeding the expectations of their audiences. It’s a capacity challenge for newsrooms to accomplish it all – cover complex issues, grow their audience, support subscriptions, and differentiate their work in competitive markets. John Derr, Director of Affiliate Partnerships for The Center Square can do more than supply stories.
That’s the thinking behind the new The Center Square’s new Partner Network, an initiative designed to give publishers more than access to trusted statehouse and public policy reporting. It adds newsroom resources, training, editorial engagement, and direct access to The Center Square’s senior leadership.
The reach behind that offer is real. The Center Square’s reporting is used by more than 1,350 media partners and, measured by Cision, reaches an average 141 million American adults each day nationwide. The newsroom – nonpartisan, nonprofit, and built around government accountability with no staff-written opinion – publishes more than 65 stories every weekday, from reporters across the country and a Washington bureau with White House credentials that covers Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court, and the federal agencies.
“Publishers today are looking for more than just content,” Derr said. “They want resources that help them strengthen their newsrooms, better serve their audiences, and stay connected to what’s happening across the industry. That’s what the Partner Network is designed to provide.”
The reporting stays at the center of the relationship. The Partner Network adds more ways to collaborate, learn, and engage – without changing the open-access publishers rely on.
One core benefit is access to editor-curated daily planner emails that help partners stay ahead of developing stories, spot reporting they can localize, and see what is likely to matter most to their readers.
“We’re constantly producing reporting that helps local newsrooms cover issues affecting their communities,” Derr said. “The daily planner helps publishers quickly find what’s available and what’s most relevant to their audience.”
Beyond content recommendations, partners gain access to virtual roundtables with The Center Square’s editorial leadership, including Chief Content Officer and Executive Editor Dan McCaleb and other award-winning senior editors. The sessions are built for exchange – on coverage, audience, emerging issues, and the operational challenges every newsroom is working through.
"Our editors have spent their careers in daily newsrooms, so we understand what our partners are looking for — timely, useful reporting that serves their readers, listeners, and viewers,” said McCaleb. "They need reliable local, regional, state, and national news that is timely, useful, and reported without a slant.”
Publishers already using the reporting describe that supplemental role plainly. “It’s been a very good service for us to use some content statewide to back up our state reporter, so he can concentrate on local angles,” said Cliff Hightower, Managing Editor of the Johnson City Press. That is the model the Partner Network is designed to deepen: The Center Square supplements a newsroom’s own coverage where staff and statehouse access have thinned, rather than replacing it.
The network also includes training and speaker programs on the issues facing news organizations now – audience behavior, new technology, shifting business models – where professional development has become harder to fund and more valuable to have.
Partners also get expanded access to the full range of The Center Square’s journalism: not only daily reporting but video, enterprise, and investigative work, including reporting that prompted government responses and drew legislative attention.
“Our goal is to help publishers get the full value of the relationship,” Derr said. “That means making sure they know the entire extent of content and resources available to them.”
For lean newsrooms, that support matters. State and public-policy decisions carry real local consequences, yet many community newsrooms can no longer staff dedicated statehouse coverage. The Center Square’s reporting helps close that gap while leaving publishers free to localize and adapt.
Participation does not narrow the flexibility publishers already have, but rather provides opportunities to make content more personalized to their needs.
“The content remains part of our open access wire, and publishers continue to keep broad flexibility in how they use it,” Derr said. “They can localize stories, adapt coverage for their markets, and incorporate our reporting into their own editorial products.”
That flexibility extends to subscription and reader-revenue strategies as well. Publishers may continue using The Center Square content in ways that best support their audiences and business models.
Derr contends the combination of trusted journalism, expanded resources, and stronger engagement opportunities creates a compelling value proposition for publishers of all sizes.
“Local journalism remains incredibly important, and publishers are doing remarkable work under real pressure,” Derr said. “If we can provide reporting, resources, and opportunities that help make those organizations stronger, that’s a win for everyone.”
As the Partner Network launches, The Center Square sees it as an opportunity to deepen its commitment to the publishers who rely on its reporting every day.
“This is really about supporting our partners,” Derr said. “We want publishers to see The Center Square as more than a content provider – it is a resource that helps them strengthen coverage, serve their audiences, and navigate what local journalism is up against.”
For publishers looking to expand coverage, add resources, and work directly with experienced editors, The Center Square Partner Network is a new way to get more value from a trusted partnership.
To learn more about The Center Square's Partner Network contact John Derr at jderr@thecentersquare.com. To support The Center Square's reporting, contact Caleb Hortop at chortop@thecentersquare.com.
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