I wrote a column for Monday’s Media Guardian about changes in the newsroom, based in part on this post.
They asked for a pegged to the merger of the print and online newsrooms at The New York Times. I made it clear that I’m consulting for The New York Times Company and couldn’t comment specifically on that news (as I said here, I don’t know anything specific). So I wrote a generic piece about the state of newsrooms and we included the obvious disclosure at the end of the piece. On Friday, after the section went to press, it occurred to me that the disclosure wasn’t full enough. Though it was clear that what I was saying was generic and not about The Times or any specific newsroom, the line at the end should have said I was working with About.com but was not involved in the paper’s newsroom, just to be triply clear. The change has been made online.
So that made me realize that I should put a fuller full disclosure on this site, which I added to my about page. Go take a look and tell me what I’m missing (as I’m sure you will).
: SPEAKING OF CHANGE IN NEWSROOMS: See this job listing from Knight Ridder:
Director, Digital News Developmenet
This position will help lead and support transformational change on the websites and in the newsrooms of the nation’s 2nd-largest newspaper company. In the 27 markets where Knight Ridder Digital operates sites, editors increasingly are demanding cross-platform skills for creating and packaging compelling, innovative, interactive news and other locally relevant content. This position will provide leadership, training, communication and recommendations as KR editors transform their newsrooms to meet the needs of their changing audience.
The successful candidate will have:
Exceptional organizational skills and the ability to influence and teach across a large, diverse organization
The desire to drive transformational change for a major national media company
Extensive online and related digital experience with content development and programming
Familiarity with the culture, organization and operations of newspaper newsrooms of all sizes
Familiarity with online publishing tools and technologies, such as HTML, Flash and online audio/video productionThe position reports to Knight Ridder Digital’s VP/Content and Local Operations. Working with KRD’s executive news editor, local digital managers and newsroom editors, this position will:
Create and implement training programs for online reporters, editors and producers
Identify and drive the adoption of best practices in online content creation and packaging
Develop and manage systems for measuring and evaluating progress in multiple newsrooms
Document and communicate initiatives via intranet and other systems across the organization.
In short: News revolutionary needed. [via Paid Content]
: LATER: Guardian link was broken. Fixed now.
