Transforming the Architecture

As newspapers struggle to survive with heavy emphasis on the Web, bulked-up local coverage and leaner staffs, they are dramatically revamping the way newsrooms operate. Read all about it this link on American Journalism Review's web site: http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4402

The newsroom of tomorrow may be arising today in Atlanta, where the Journal-Constitution's editor, Julia Wallace, has fearlessly upended the organization chart and reinvented the news process.

Or tomorrow's newsroom may soon take shape at the San Jose Mercury News, where Executive Editor Carole Leigh Hutton foresees bold changes and warns, "Everyone here knows that the position they hold today may not be the position they hold in six months. I make no commitment that there will be a business editor or a sports editor or a city editor, because that may not be what we need."

Or it may emerge across the landscape of Gannett papers like the Des Moines Register, where Editor Carolyn Washburn's newsroom, known now as the Information Center, is expanding online work, adding futuristic touches like a Data Desk and merging or eliminating some traditional beats and editing jobs.

From AJR, October/November 2007
By Carl Sessions Stepp
Carl Sessions Stepp (cstepp@jmail.umd.edu), AJR's senior editor, teaches at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.