The Center Square has been a great extension of our newsroom.”
Scott Anderson, Senior Editor, USA TODAY Network
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For Scott Anderson, who oversees 11 USA TODAY Network newsrooms across Louisiana and Arkansas, The Center Square has become a practical way to add reporting depth when local staffs are stretched.
Scott Anderson currently serves as senior editor for 11 USA TODAY Network nameplates across Louisiana and Arkansas. His markets range from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria, Lafayette, Opelousas, Houma, Thibodaux and several Louisiana weekly newspapers.
It is a sizable editorial responsibility, made more challenging by a reality familiar to local news leaders everywhere: There are more important stories to cover than a newsroom can realistically get to.
That is why Anderson has used The Center Square for more than a year—as a selective, supplemental reporting resource that helps his newsrooms better serve the communities they cover.
“We’ve been using Center Square for at least a year,” Anderson said. “When we can find an opportunity to supplement our coverage with things like Manship and The Center Square, we tend to take advantage of it where we can.”
Filling the gaps in statewide and local coverage
The relationship began with statewide stories—coverage that could appeal across several of Anderson’s Louisiana markets. More recently, he has also found value in stories that help fill specific local gaps, particularly in northwest Louisiana.
“It really started out as a supplement to our state coverage,” Anderson said. “We would pull topics from around the state that had that kind of broad appeal. Lately, particularly with Shreveport, we have been pulling some of their content to add to our coverage in the area.”
Shreveport, Bossier City and northwest Louisiana represent a busy coverage area with major developments in government, business and community life. Anderson said his newsroom has two reporters serving that region—enough to produce meaningful work, but not enough to cover every important meeting, event or emerging story.
“Shreveport, Bossier, northwest Louisiana has a lot going on,” he said. “We can’t always cover all of it. So it helps out a lot.”
The Center Square gives Anderson another source of reporting to consider. As with any content used by his newsrooms, his editors decide which stories fit their publications and audiences. That editorial judgment remains central to the relationship.
Why enterprise reporting matters
For Anderson, one of The Center Square’s most significant contributions is its enterprise reporting—stories that require time, sourcing, subject expertise and a level of development that can be difficult to maintain when local reporters are also responsible for the daily news cycle.
“The enterprise stories really are the ones that fill the most gaps for us,” Anderson said.
That need is not unique to his markets. Local newsrooms have had to adapt to leaner staffs, younger reporters and the pressure to cover a growing number of topics on tighter deadlines. Anderson said the value comes from being able to supplement his team’s own work with reporting that brings additional depth to subjects his communities need to understand.
“We don’t have as many people who have the experience or even the time and opportunity to develop some of the enterprise to the degree that the reporters at Center Square do,” he said. “So that’s where they help us the most.”
There is also a role for more immediate coverage. In Shreveport, Anderson said The Center Square has helped with stories involving events, meetings and other developments that his own staff could not get to.
“We probably use a little more of the daily news coverage or the pop-up news coverage of events or meetings or things that we just couldn’t get to ourselves,” he said.
Covering Louisiana’s biggest economic stories
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Anderson’s newsrooms have a statewide government reporter helping cover Baton Rouge, policy and legislative issues. But he said economic-impact reporting is one of the areas where additional reporting can make the biggest difference.
“The economic issues is probably the biggest for us,” Anderson said.
Louisiana’s economy is shaped by industries and developments with implications far beyond a single town or parish. The Center Square’s reporting on oil and gas issues affecting the Gulf, as well as the growing wave of data-center development across the state, has proven especially helpful.
“They’ve helped us out a lot with coverage surrounding all the data centers that are coming to the state,” Anderson said. “Those are two very specific areas where their enterprise reporting has filled some gaps for us.”
These are also the stories that draw readers. Anderson said data-center coverage performs well because nearly every region in Louisiana is thinking about the potential impact of a project, whether it is proposed, under construction or already operating.
“Especially with the data centers, it does, because that is such a hot topic across the whole state,” he said. “Everywhere they’re talking about putting one or building one now, that content always does well.”
Coverage involving oil and gas, shrimpers and issues affecting the Gulf also has resonated with readers, he said. And in Shreveport, locally focused stories The Center Square was able to cover have performed well when his own staff was not able to be there.
Reporting that earns an editor’s trust
A supplemental-content relationship only works if the reporting meets an editor’s standards. Anderson is responsible for deciding what runs across his newsrooms, and he said he has been pleased with both the quality of The Center Square’s reporting and the structure of the stories.
“The reporting is solid,” he said. “They’re well-sourced. They’re well-developed as far as their reporting goes.”
He said he has not encountered substantive editing problems.
“Structurally, I’ve not had any editing issues with them,” Anderson said. “I occasionally see the nitpicky little stuff that we all can miss from time to time, which is why you want more than one editor reading your story anyway. But overall, I’ve been very pleased with both the reporting and the editing side of what they’re doing.”
That assessment matters because local editors are not looking simply for more material to publish. They need reporting they can evaluate, trust and use responsibly for their own audiences.
A practical extension of the newsroom
Anderson receives suggestions for Louisiana-relevant stories and chooses the ones that make sense for his markets. The process is straightforward, but the impact can be meaningful—especially for a regional editor trying to make sure communities do not miss important stories because of geography, staffing constraints or the specialized nature of the topic.
“They cover either parts of the state where we don’t have people or topics that we don’t necessarily always have the expertise to cover,” Anderson said. “They cover spot news, meetings, things like that, that we cannot get to because of our own constraints.”
His bottom-line assessment is clear: “The Center Square has been a great extension of our newsroom.”
For other editors considering The Center Square as a supplemental reporting resource, Anderson recommends taking a serious look.
“I find their content worth taking a look at, and it’s so simple and agreeable working with them to use their content that, if you’re needing some supplemental coverage, I don’t know how you can go wrong looking at their content and giving it a fair shake.”
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.