Executive editor
Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal
...There must be adjustments on both the business side and news side.
Both sides need to find a happy medium where they can come together and produce the type of news and information that will be both profitable and useful for readers.
The business side must realize that it takes time and resources to produce the kind of journalism that we should be providing. The deep newsroom cuts over that past few years threaten to undercut that goal and chase away some of the profession’s best and brightest.
The news side must realize that:
- It must adjust to changes in reading habits.
- It must work hand-in-hand with the business and technology departments to develop new platforms to deliver news and information.
- It will need to work closer with the business side to develop new print products that not only produce new revenue streams but also serve the reader’s need to quality news and information. We must be careful not to cross the lines of advertising and news in pursuit of more revenue.
- More resources will have to be shifted to Web sites because it is clear that more and more people are going to the Internet for their news and information. But we must apply the same standards to information we put on the Web as we apply to our print products.
We must train them to break news on the Web and to explain it in more depth and detail in the next day’s print product; train them that we want to be first with the news and information of the day.
We must train editors on all desks to post stories on the Web, train photographers to post stories on the Web from the field and train them to shoot video and to produce high-quality multi-media packages.
We should look for more and more ways to connect with readers and to allow their voices to be heard in print and online. Many of us are engaging in citizen journalism, which can be a good thing. However, we must establish some system of monitoring and verifying the information that we allow people to post on our Websites.
As we ponder this new world, we must not lose sight of the importance of diversity in our newsrooms. There is a great danger that the importance of diversity will be lost in this rush to change. Let us not make the mistakes that were made by our early predecessors and forget -- or ignore -- the importance of having different voices in our newsrooms.
This may all sound like a bold, daunting new world, and it is in many ways. But as we go down this road, we must maintain the high standards that have made this industry what it is today -- the greatest business in the world.
