Newsrooms: Divvy up Web duties

This week’s tally:

  • Four audio slideshows (1, 2, 3, 4)
  • Two videos (1, 2)
  • One podcast (1)
  • One new blog (1)
  • An assortment of online photo galleries
  • The creation of daytime, Web-only reporting shifts
  • A smooth-going second week of copy editors handling Web duties

For us, this is a huge leap forward. What makes me especially excited is that the workload for these projects was spread out over the entire staff:

  • News reporters worked day shifts
  • Features reporters came in for their weekly Film Forum review show
  • Sports reporters blogged
  • Videographers shot and produced the Film Forum episode and a post-game wrap-up video
  • Photographers shot and edited their slideshows
  • Copy editors tossed out the shovelware precedent in favor of a new system incorporating outbound links, related story links and a Web-friendly mentality

Though our Web department is still set off on its own (not necessarily a good thing), we can’t do it all on our own. (Our Web staff includes just four people; our total staff is around 150. You do the math.)

Takeaways from this week:

  • A multimedia series can keep momentum up.
    Our audio slideshows were each paired with a features section story. (Props to Matt Buxton, our photo chief and deputy editor, for organizing the visual side of this series.)
  • Your “rationalizations” can be your worst enemy.
    I put off integrating Web and print editing duties for longer than I should have as Web editor, arguing that it just wasn’t the right time, the right CMS, the right something or another. Our copy desk has done superbly in their new roles, and they probably would have been just fine had they been given them a couple weeks earlier.
  • Web-first daytime reporting can be a tough sell.
    I’m having trouble filling my 10 shifts for day reporters. This could be for a variety of reasons: scheduling conflicts with class, not enough pay, not understanding the value of Web skills. I’m sincerely hoping the culprit is a combination of the first two and not the third. Either way, I’ll keep on recruiting.

A question: What recruitment/motivation techniques have worked well for reporters specifically at your news organization?

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