Hearst Connecticut Media Group has announced an expansion of both its statewide news coverage and local journalism in Hartford County.
A total of 13 new staff members, including 11 journalists, will be hired to support the expansion, the news outlet said Thursday. The new coverage will be published online on CTInsider.com, which launched last June and has experienced rapid growth. Much of the content will also appear in the company’s eight daily newspapers and its network of community weeklies, according to Hearst CT.
The expansion adds multiple reporting roles, some focused on big state topics and enterprise, while Hartford County reporters will cover areas including local breaking news, investigations and more in Hartford and the surrounding areas. A Hartford County newsletter writer/reporter will also be added along with a new leadership position, CT Insider Managing Editor. Two advertising sales representatives will also be hired.
“Our goal is to double down on the quality journalism we produce daily and increase our coverage, including in areas where we see a void of local news reporting in communities across the state,” said HCMG Publisher and President Mike DeLuca. “We are proud to continue investing in our newsrooms, while also serving advertisers with increased opportunities to connect with new and existing audiences who are engaged with our products and journalism.”
CTInsider.com includes everything from top breaking stories, UConn sports coverage, GameTime CT (HCMG’s statewide local sports network), food, business, investigations, data journalism, lifestyle, real estate and more. The site features well-known journalists such as Jeff Jacobs, Mike Anthony, Leeanne Griffin, Dan Haar and others who the company said “will continue to report on important topics that resonate across the state, from the sports teams fans love to the restaurants they dine in and the politics they engage with.”
“Our newsrooms have consistently delivered quality journalism readers can count on — journalism that informs, empowers, creates debate and provides a public service which can change lives for the better,” said HCMG Senior Vice President of Content and Editor-in-Chief Wendy Metcalfe. “We are proud and excited to be making this important investment to expand local and statewide news at a time we are experiencing record digital subscription growth. We also remain staunchly committed to our continued diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, both inside and outside of our newsroom, from the content we create to the important work of HCMG’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council.”
Existing subscribers to HCMG’s many products will be able to access this additional content as part of their subscription.
Hearst CT said it has the largest news team in the state, with more than 160 newsroom roles. The company’s Connecticut news operation is experiencing record digital subscription growth, and overall print and digital growth within its network of community newspapers and websites — which includes the Connecticut Post, New Haven Register, Danbury’s News-Times, Greenwich Time, Stamford Advocate, The Register Citizen, The Middletown Press, The Norwalk Hour, a number of other community publications and Connecticut Magazine.
HCMG said it expects to reach nearly 50,000 digital subscriptions by the end of this year — and around 100,000 overall for print and digital. It has seen 31 consecutive months of digital subscription growth since its paywall launch in September 2019. HCMG said reader loyalty is also at an all-time high, with low churn rates across the network.
CT Insider’s Hartford County expansion content can be accessed via CT Insider’s home page or through CTInsider.com/Hartford. HCMG said readers will be able to access some of the new content on Thursday, with an increasing amount set to follow as the new roles are filled. This expansion will see a team of local journalists focused on Hartford County communities, including Hartford and West Hartford — furthering the work by HCMG’s West Hartford News, reporting by its politics team at the Capitol and other areas such as breaking news.
GameTime CT, the state’s local sports network, will also include coverage from Hartford County, the company said.
HCMG will also be adding a graphics reporter to its ranks. The investigations and data team, led by former Boston Globe Spotlight team member and recent Pulitzer Prize winner Matt Rocheleau, recently published a groundbreaking investigation which was followed with a pledge by Governor Ned Lamont to spend $18M to close gaps in services supporting domestic violence victims revealed by the enterprise series.
The Connecticut expansion comes at a time when Hearst Newspapers has also expanded its shared product and data hub, hiring a team of 20 staff who will serve multiple newsrooms across its network to deepen journalism in this important area. Hearst Newspapers closed last year with more than 300,000 paid digital-only subscriptions, an increase of 100,000 or 50% from the year before.
