With the final papers graded, the list of GateHouse newsrooms certified for Inner Circle has grown to 186 in the first quarter. New digital expectations joined the original Inner Circle categories for 2012, but most newsrooms took the additional challenges in stride.

Inner Circle evaluations begin today for fourth quarter 2011. Follow us on Twitter, where we'll keep you updated throughout the week as we examine GateHouse newspapers and websites to see if they meet the criteria for Inner Circle 2011. We'll also do daily posts on GHnewsroom.com so you can find out as soon as possible whether your news organization qualifies.

How newspapers use Local Loop and what it means for Inner Circle will change a bit in 2012. Here are five things to know:

With 213 news organizations making Inner Circle for third quarter 2011, check out some impressive numbers of papers executing GateHouse Media strategy online and in print.

As we tie up a few loose ends the week after our evaluations, 214 newspapers have made the Inner Circle for third quarter 2011. Here is the list:

The second day of evaluations for the third quarter 2011 Inner Circle opens this morning, with 88 newsrooms already on the list. Follow the evaluations all day today on Twitter.

GateHouse Media news organizations will find out next week their third-quarter results for Inner Circle, which measures print and online expectations for 2011. Have you been updating your website and posting galleries regularly? Have you run your CPJs and PSJs? Are you asking readers every day for content in specific callouts online and in print? Have you been promoting your newspaper using First in Print or Only in Print? Check back next week to learn your results.

From Springfield, Ill., to Springfield, Mo.,  GateHouse Media newspapers attended regional meetings to learn about the digital focus for Inner Circle 2012. Here are five takeaways from that first week of meetings.

Carrie Gonzalez Myers, editor of the Randolph County Herald Tribune and Steeleville Ledger, two weeklies in Illinois, accomplished all eight areas of the Inner Circle in six days. From Web elements, where she exceeds expectations, to News Cube, she's doing it all in her one-person newsroom. Find out how she did it.

Our Inner Circle evaluations measuring your achievement of online and print corporate strategies went out last week, thanks to the hard work of  special projectors coordinator Anne Raih, and whether you're in, you're almost in or you're nowhere near being in, here's what's next for you.

Find out live next week if your news organization made the Inner Circle for the first quarter in our new blog.

Inner Circle is more than just getting newspapers to start reader callouts and do more alternative story formats. It's about creating new forms of local content and developing websites that thrive with updates and galleries, and print products that invite readers to participate, are filled with more local faces and look out for the public's interest.

In this three-day series, we are profiling three newsrooms that made big strides in the past quarter to put Web Cube and News Cube practices into place and gain Inner Circle recognition. We asked the editors in these newsrooms to share what they did to meet their goals. Today, Devils Lake Journal (North Dakota) news editor Louise Oleson:

In this three-day series, we are profiling three newsrooms that made big strides in the past quarter to put Web Cube and News Cube practices into place and gain Inner Circle recognition. We asked the editors in these newsrooms to share what they did to meet their goals. Today, weekly editor Kathleen Meyer of the St. James Leader-Journal in Missouri, a newsroom staff of one.

 

In this three-day series, we are profiling three newsrooms that made big strides in the past quarter to put Web Cube and News Cube practices into place and gain Inner Circle recognition. We asked the editors in these newsrooms to share what they did to meet their goals. Today, weekly Echo-Pilot (Greencastle, Pa.) editor Joyce F. Nowell:

42 newspapers were named Inner Circle newspapers for the fourth quarter of 2010. Meet the staffs of those newspaper below.

There are 42 newspapers that have been certified for their outstanding performance in the fourth quarter. There were eight that were certified in the third quarter.