L.A. Times implements Manhattan Project
The new editor of Los Angeles Times, James O’Shea — who took over after the previous editor, Dean Baquet, was ousted (along with the publisher) for refusing to make substantial newsroom cuts — has announced a restructuring of the newsroom aimed at focusing the paper more on breaking news online, and using its resources better in terms of integration between paper and Web, something a lot of newspapers are currently struggling with.
Among other things, he announced an “editor for innovation” and a series of newsroom courses in writing and filing for the web. According to the L.A. Times story on it (which must have been fun to write), O’Shea told an auditorium full of reporters and editors that the Times had been complacent because it was doing fairly well financially, but that it couldn’t rest on its laurels. He also said that an internal report found:
– a lack of assertive leadership and adequate focus on the website.
– understaffing.
– “creaky” technology.
– failure to integrate the newspaper’s large news staff into operations at the web.
My favourite quote from the report: “To put it bluntly, as a news organization, we are not web-savvy. If anything, we are web-stupid.” More on the topic from Greg Sterling at Screenwerk and at Editor & Publisher, which got comments from L.A. staffers, as well as PaidContent and online veteran Steve Yelvington.
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(On Jan 25th, 2007 at 9:44 pm)
[…] For more reaction to and analysis of the L.A. Times’ new web-centric strategy, see Staci D. Kramer, Mack Reed, Mark Potts, Juan Antonio Giner, Paul Gillin, Barbara Iverson, Gary Bourgeault, Mathew Ingram, Tony Adam, Sally Falkow, Frank Barnako, Bob Meyer, M Carleton, Greg Sterling, Charles Apple, Media Wire Daily, S.D. Watch, and, naturally, the L.A. Fire Department. […]