Power struggles brew as newspaper newsrooms converge
December 1, 2009 · Filed Under Business Bytes, Future of Media
E&P’s Joe Strupp reports that as newspaper newsrooms “combine online and print operations into single entities, power struggles are brewing among many in charge. More and more as these unifications occur, it’s the online side that’s losing authority…. online supervisors nationwide are seeing their resources — and influence — shrink as the staffs unite. Many say the Web site must be able to offer a different approach, more new ideas and risks, and options that the print edition can’t even consider.”
“Key to that, they contend, is giving Web-side editors power to run their sites out from under the print editor’s control — a situation that is far less likely in a converged newsroom. Some say it is even time for the top editor of a newspaper to be an online-trained person.”
