This week, Julia Wallace, editor of the Atlanta paper, explained in this memo why and how the newsroom faces a radical integration process.
The dramatic message can be summarized in these words:
Rather than tinkering with the old newsroom, we need to start over.
Yes, that’s the way!
Here is the full memo:
Memo to Atlanta Journal-Constitution staffers
TO: All Newsroom Employees
FROM: [Editor] Julia Wallace
DATE: February 15, 2007
SUBJECT: Newsroom Realignment
Introduction
Today, I announced several important changes for the AJC. These changes position our newsroom for the future and provide for continuous renewal and reinvention.
They give us the structure to remain metro Atlanta’s dominant print and online news and information source.
This e-mail provides a summary of the changes for the newsroom.
At the staff meeting where I made the announcement, Publisher John Mellott discussed other changes throughout the company.
For a summary, see his e-mail and the letter to readers that will be on ajc.com later today and in print tomorrow.
We’re Listening and Evolving
We must make these changes to respond to our readers.
They now have more sources than ever for news and information, and we must fundamentally alter the way we operate.
Online, we will show that we know Atlanta best, providing superlative news and information and becoming the preferred medium for connecting local communities.
In print, we will really listen to our core readers and create a newspaper that offers distinct and valuable content.
As we think about this future, we have four clear jobs:
Grow digital
Reinvent print
Create more regular local enterprise (distinctive content) that readers cannot get elsewhere
Improve our news and information gathering
We must organize ourselves to meet these goals.
That means a major shift in the way we work.
Our current structure is fine for the pace and demands of a printed newspaper, but isn’t structured for online’s immediacy and evolving needs.
Additionally, as we have evolved over time, we have added layers and bureaucracy and have become less nimble.
Rather than tinkering with the old newsroom, we need to start over.
What’s changing?
First, we’ll untangle the bureaucracy by moving from more than a dozen departments and desks to four main departments.
We’ll also reduce the number of management layers.
The four new departments are:
News & Information
Enterprise
Digital
The idea is to separate content from production.
This is a new way of thinking for us, but I believe it is the best way forward.
The News and Information department will be responsible for news of all kinds — metro, business, features and sports.
Its mission and mantra is daily watchdog and aggressive newsgathering.
If something is happening in metro Atlanta, we want to tell our readers first and best.
This department will think online first but will also provide print with a heavy dose of news.
Beat reporters, general assignment reporters, full-time columnists and go teams will work in this department. The goal is a fast-paced, fun department, learning and growing digital knowledge, while still serving print in smart ways.
This department will also work on developing and organizing all of the information we have about metro Atlanta.
This department will be led by Managing Editor/News & Information Mike Lupo.
The Enterprise department will generate distinctive local content.
While it will produce special projects, this is more than a projects department.
It will produce a steady stream of enterprise.
Print will be its focus, but it also will take full advantage of the online platform.
Success means stories that offer something truly distinctive for the newspaper, create emotional connections, make us think, teach us something and change our world.
The hallmarks of this department’s work will include unrelenting watchdog coverage, deep reporting, great storytelling, interesting profiles and trend stories.
The primary goal of the enterprise department is to build more loyalty among regular print readers by providing them a menu of first-rate enterprise every day.
This department will be led by Managing Editor/Enterprise Hank Klibanoff.
The Digital department is responsible for growing online audience by offering local news and information; providing a platform for interactivity and social networking; and extending our selection beyond news to attract new audiences.
“Knowing Atlanta best” will be the department’s mantra, as it innovates to maximize online’s unique strengths with a keen awareness of our readers’ needs and our journalistic mission.
This department will work to expand an audience that turns to us again and again.
It will be led by Managing Editor/Digital Robin Henry.
The Print department will produce the best newspaper possible.
Much like the digital department, it will pull from news, enterprise and other sources, including Cox’s Washington bureau.
This department will focus on issues such as balance, story play, headlines, cutlines, photos and design — the many factors that determine a reader’s experience with the paper.
This structure places print and digital on equal footing, each taking what they need to satisfy their specific audiences.
The print department will be led by Managing Editor/Print Bert Roughton.
Who’s in charge?
James Mallory and I will work closely with these new departments in different ways.
James will be promoted to Senior Managing Editor and Vice President/News.
He will be responsible for newsroom staffing issues and will represent the newsroom at the newspaper officers’ steering committee, working with the other Vice Presidents (production, marketing, etc.) on long- and short-term issues.
James has been here 18 years, working his way up from reporter.
He knows the people and place well and has a straightforward, fair, solution-oriented approach that will serve all of us well in this new job.
In addition to the expansion of his existing duties, James will be in charge when I’m away.
I will focus on two key areas: working with the four Managing Editors and Editorial Page Editor Cynthia Tucker, on making our content in print and online as strong as it can be, and working with the Publisher and the newspaper leadership team on constantly calibrating our strategic plans so we build as strong a future as possible.
Shawn McIntosh moves to a new job, Director of Culture and Change, focusing on all of the organizational issues to move us where we need to go. These include training, analysis of process and implementation of standards, and guiding the transition in the months ahead.
Her job will be critical to make sure we really change.
The leadership team also includes Stacy Lynch, Director of Innovations, the four Managing Editors and Editorial Page Editor Cynthia Tucker. Hyde Post, Vice President of Internet, and Amy Glennon, Director of Product Development, will continue to report to me and General Manager Scott Whiteside.
They will work closely with the newsroom leadership team.
What else is happening?
We are extending a voluntary separation program offer to about 80 employees who are 55 years of age or older and have 10 years of Cox pension vesting service.
The offer is completely voluntary.
We don’t expect everyone to take the offer, but we will not limit the number who can accept.
We want people to make the decision that is best for them, and we will honor it.
Because of that, I can’t tell you today how many people will choose to leave the newsroom.
Nor can I or other newsroom leaders say anything about what the future will hold for anyone individually.
We will talk more specifically in the weeks ahead about the future we see and share that with everyone.
Because the reorganization is timed with the voluntary separation offer, the rules of that separation program will guide our timing.
Clearly we will lose some very talented and veteran folks. It’s hard, but it’s necessary for our economic realities.
We consider it a generous offer that provides some financial flexibility to those who choose to accept that they wouldn’t otherwise have.
One thing to remember:
We will remain one of the largest newsrooms in the country, and we will continue to have a larger news gathering staff than all of the other local print and broadcast news organizations in Atlanta combined.
You’re part of the process
As we begin this journey, we know we don’t have all the answers.
We have some work to do to figure out the best way to organize the staff. We will engage all of you in this conversation, because no one understands this place better than you.
We will look at what works and doesn’t work now and how to improve it.
We’ll talk about what we know about reader needs and how we must respond.
We’ll talk about engaging readers more regularly and understanding what information they want and need. We will discuss the best way to get the work done, jobs to be created, jobs that need to merge and jobs that will remain the same.
As we implement changes, we will boost our commitment to training, adding more classes focused on areas such as understanding our audiences and how to serve them.
Summary: Vision
We will become a new newsroom — one that is bold and assertive.
We will not allow ourselves to be steamrolled by events beyond our control.
We will seize control of our fate.
What you will not hear is a change in the commitment to the important work we do.
We are the dominant source for news and information in metro Atlanta.
We do the work that strengthens our democracy and helps our readers find fulfillment in their daily lives.
In the coming months, we’ll ask you to participate in brainstorming sessions.
We need your help as we further define, develop and fine-tune the new structure.
Here are some key milestones to note:
Organizational planning continues — Feb-April
New structure and positions announced — April
Interview and selection process – late April — late May
Announce new organization as positions are filled — June
Full implementation of new organization — late June
Voluntary Separation Program volunteers’ anticipated last day of employment — June 30
As we go through changes in the next few months, know that although these are difficult times for newspapers, this newspaper is committed to navigating through these waters and to taking the time to do things right.
There will be some uncertainty, and your leadership team and I will speak to you often about what we are learning.
I believe in each and every one of you, and I know that we will succeed.
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