HOW THE "INFORMATION CENTERS" OF GANNETT WILL BE ORGANIZED

Exciting times for the newsrooms of the future.

Steve Fox tells us the good news:

"Newspapers, including Gannett’s, have traditionally operated in silos: national reporters and editors covered national news, photographers took care of the images, etc. Gannett takes all these traditions and throws them out the window. The focus will be on delivering information, not job titles and section loyalties."

According to Jeff Howe these are the seven divisions into which Gannett newsrooms will be reorganized.

By May 2007, the editorial side of each Information Center at Gannett newspapers will be organized into the following seven primary job areas:

1. Digital — selecting the best platform for news delivery.

2. Public Service — extending First Amendment coverage, in part by involving readers and asking for community input on investigative areas.

3. Community Conversation — expanding the concept of the editorial page; managing staff commentary, from editorials and blogs to columns; and encouraging community participation online.

4. Local — expanding local coverage and re-establishing sports, business and feature reporting into hyper-local areas.

5. Custom Content — connecting with identified target audiences and looking for efficiencies in repurposing content across all platforms.

6. Data — elevating the practice of managing and acquiring deep local information.

7. Multimedia — leading all visual presentation across every platform; photographers will be trained for any type of multimedia.

In USA TODAY like in all the Gannett newspapers, they have discovered that people no longer look to just newspapers for their daily fill of information.

As a consequence, the traditional newsroom management and structure has to change, and it will change.

As Gregory Korte, the Cincinnati Enquirer reporter noted "The newspaper of the future is going to need more programmers than copy editors, and we're going to have to figure out how to make that transition."

In the picture, USA TODAY Executive Editor John Hillkirk discusses the newsroom merger at a staff meeting.