A Newspaper Built For the Newsroom   

After three years of reporting for California's Turlock Journal, Steve Chaikin went searching for a publication that spoke to what he considers "the grunts" of the newsroom--reporters like himself, toiling away at city council meetings and court hearings and campaign stops. When he couldn't find one, he decided to start his own.

Prize Press, the monthly tabloid Chaikin launched four years ago that now has some 1,000 subscribers, highlights investigations by newspapers across the country. Each issue features an in-depth interview with a reporter and reprints prizewinning stories. There are also items such as the blow-by-blow of spats between labor and management, overlooked stories from smaller papers, insightful or funny quotes culled from industry publications and reports, a rundown of journalism-related legal decisions, and a digest of stories or series done at dozens of papers (including phone numbers to contact the reporters to find out more about how they went about their investigation).

For award coverage, Chaikin and contributing editor Karen Rodriguez examine stories that have won or placed in everything from the Pulitzers to more specialized contests. "We're not just going for the mega-metros," says Chaikin, 37. "We go through the results of virtually every professional contest, and there are hundreds."

Many of Chaikin's readers--his mailing list runs the gamut from Don Mason, project manager of the 413,000-circulation Houston Chronicle, to Dean Acheson, general manager of the 9,996-circulation Lakeland Times in Minocqua, Wisconsin--consider that sort of information invaluable. And although Acheson's twice-weekly doesn't have the staff to pursue the projects tackled by urban dailies such as those in Houston, Chaikin's newsroom round-up still gets his blood flowing.

"It gives our reporters some insight into how to pursue stories," Acheson says. That, Chaikin says, is exactly what he hoped for.