Saturday, September 29, 2007

A blue print for the future

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has thrown away the rule book when it comes to designing news rooms in the age of convergence.

The American Journalism review reports that


For years, journalists have wrangled with rampaging change, especially the online revolution that brought vast new duties and the accompanying downsizing that left fewer people to accomplish them. Now these changes are rushing toward a threshold that seems likely to remake the homely print newsroom into a multimedia center fighting for survival and success.


The paper this summer

abolished traditional desks and reconstituted itself into four departments instead of more than a dozen. Two produce the content: News and Information, the largest department, supplies breaking news and other material directed first toward the Web. The Enterprise department develops surprising, watchdog-type stories largely for the morning newspaper. The two other departments, Digital and Print, independently select from this content and handle presentation for the Journal-Constitution and its Web site, ajc.com.

The paper has tried to become Web based something that many papers will have tried to adhere to.Its

structure serves up constantly updated online news, lifestyle guides and interactive multimedia features, with about 5 million unique visitors a month. The print paper, circulation 360,000 daily, 525,000 Sundays, stresses depth and enterprise.

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