How to prepare your newsroom for the digital future
At the ASNE-ONA convergence workshop for "How to prepare your newsroom for the digital future," held today in D.C. I conjunction with the Online News Association conference, journalists discussed issues confronting editors as newsrooms go digital.
Anthony Moor, editor, Orlando Sentinel.com, reports that the speakers emphasized the need for editors to be agents of change in newsrooms.
David Ledford, vice president, news/executive editor, Delaware News Journal, showed how his insistence that news staff all be gathering news
and multimedia for the Web has transformed his site.
Mike Riley, editor, Roanoke Times, said that he led a strategic planning process in his newsroom and
then made sure to publicize it to staff -- which brought many onboard.
Moor laid out a series of action items for editors and online editors to foster change. "I emphasized the need for editors to focus on process
change, not people," he says. "They need to create a workflow for Web content that is standard regardless of who's doing the work."
Here are the tips he shared:
1) You are engaged in change management – acknowledge that there will be change and point forward to the future.
Have a vision for what that will be
2) You need to begin this change from the top down
a) Your Web editor must have top newsroom authority and respect
3) You need to have a plan so that once the mandate is given, you can act
a) The plan must be based on processes not people
b) The plan should include the following areas where action items are necessary
i) Buy in
(1) Managers must support and promote any Web initiative, because the people who must carry it out do not report to Web staff
(2) Reporters and staff must understand the different, but equally worthy journalistic mission of the Web and see the positive results of their work
ii) Workflow
(1) Plug in to budgeting process
(2) Institutionalize work expressly for the Web through a best-practices approach
iii) Staffing
(1) Reconfigure online staff schedule to better handle interaction with print
(2) Reschedule print staff to accommodate Web’s different schedules, such as its morning
“prime time” hours
iv) Training: Staff must be given the tools and training to implement Web goals
4) The Web site is not the newspaper on a computer
a) It’s not an archive of the newspaper. You need to understand that the content needs are different. A Sunday takeout may not make sense as a multimedia experience, and even if it does, it may not be the “sweet spot” for your Web site
b) The Web is interactive – your role can be that of a facilitator for community conversation, not just a provider of information
c) The Web is a place for structured data. Newsrooms are a place for unstructured information. That means reporters and editors will have to begin to gather information in structured ways if it is to make it onto the Web.
Oct 05, 2006 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(0)
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