Comments on: Do you know your new media staff members? Probably not.

By: When it comes to online staffing newspapers should play to win | editor on the verge

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:03:56 +0000

[...] Pat Thornton wrote a post on his blog discussing how newspaper companies integrate their print and online staffs. “And [...]

By: Yoni Greenbaum

Yoni Greenbaum — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:06:16 +0000

Pat – Good post. You have to wonder though, if convergence is really the best answer? Just look at the most recent Borrell report which indicates that combined print and online sales staffs don’t work. Now granted editorial is different, but maybe the Washington Post is on to something and maybe they haven’t gone far enough. I guess time will tell.

By: pat

pat — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 15:28:10 +0000

Megan, congrats on the Managing Editor position! I was the managing editor online before I was editor in chief. It’s better preparation for being EIC of a modern news organization than being managing editor of the print edition.

We struggled a bit with how to staff everything while I was in college. At one point, we had separate staffs for online and print writers. The online writers were focused on breaking news, quick event recaps, etc, while the print did the more analysis and preview pieces. But the problem with a lot of college newspapers is that when the talent and drive graduates, the operation suffers a lot.

Things we were doing while I was a junior in college are no longer done. We did some really cool stuff several years ago.

William, I think the new media staff makes more sense than the copy editors in the newsroom. I’m sure the copy editors wouldn’t be thrilled, but there job is not to report. They can either call, e-mail or walk out to the newsroom if they have a question about a story. New media and print people both do reporting. They need to collaborate.

It looks like the online team at my paper is bumping the features staff from the newsroom. Any of those non-core staffs could easily be bumped. But it’s all about newsroom politics, and some people’s egos may override doing the right thing for a company.

I think all newspapers need to at least send that signal that the new media staff is integral to the future of the organization. And it has to start now.

By: William M. Hartnett

William M. Hartnett — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 03:51:31 +0000

We have producers here and there throughout the newsroom these days. There’s video editing being done on the metro desk, a producer sitting at the sports desk, TV, radio and assorted multimedia in an office in the middle of the newsroom. But most of the producers work down a long hallway, next to the staffs of our Spanish-language newspaper and weekly neighborhood news publications.

I was talking to someone about the workspace-affecting-mindset issue just the other day, and they wondered whether the entire copy desk, which is directly in the middle of the newsroom, could simply switch places with the bulk of the new media staff. It would certainly send a signal.

By: Megan Taylor

Megan Taylor — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:47:31 +0000

Not too long ago at The Alligator, the online staff was in a room at the front of the building, closed off from the newsroom. When I started as a media staffer, we were using the photographer’s room, which is adjacent to the newsroom. When I took over as online managing editor, my staff and I worked in the newsroom with everyone else…though because of our limitations as a student paper, the only people who were there when online staff was were copyeditors and production.
In the Spring semester, the online staff will continue to work in the newsroom, but will adjust hours slightly to be more visible to writers. I’m continuing as m.e., and finally getting my own desk!
Slowly but surely, progress is being made.