REGIONAL MEDIA ECOSYSTEMS: COVINGTON

Covington, Georgia was among the first locales to attract production work to the state, starting with site location recruitment that lured film projects like The Cannonball Run, In the Heat of the Night, My Cousin Vinny, Selma, The Vampire Diaries, Sweet Magnolias, Doctor Sleep and many more to the historic town center—several iconic scenes in film and tv history were filmed there. In the years since, a coordinated strategy to attract large enterprises to Newton County has leveraged significant new investments from companies like Meta. One of the state’s largest new studio complexes is under expansion immediately outside Covington, only ten minutes from Covington’s charming square. Cinelease Studios–Three Ring has been conceptualized to support production work across multiple sectors, including traditional episodic television series, live audience shows, and feature films. The sprawling complex has over 100 acres in use and under active development. The initial phase has 50 acres which includes over 100,000 square feet of purpose-built sound stages, 30,000 square feet of office bungalow space, and 30,000 square feet of mill space. Phase II and it’s 55 acres

The potential contribution of the creative industries to statewide economic development occurs against a troubling backdrop of clustered innovation. The national innovation economy is surprisingly limited in its geographical reach. A recent study by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Brookings Institution found that “fully one-third of the nation’s innovation jobs now reside in just 16 U.S. counties, and more than half are concentrated in 41 counties.”68 While Atlanta is on that list, it is telling that of the will feature an additional 144,000 square feet of stage space, 100,000 square feet of office space, 72,000 square feet of mill space, and 50,000 square feet of vendor support space. smaller cities judged to be currently well poised for digital innovation investments, none in the Brookings/ITIF research are Georgialocated. A comprehensive strategy that takes advantage of educational interest in the media and entertainment industries, and is more broadly connected to STEM education, regional infrastructure developments to narrow the digital divide, and other strategies for rural economic development, is already a significant legislative priority.