Building a Newsroom

for the future

Aug. 26, 2010

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“It is not necessary to change.

Survival is not mandatory.”

­ W. Edwards Deming

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Why are we changing?• We have a strong, vibrant and highly

recognized brand

• We started the “conversation with America” and continue it every day

• Major national consumer brands rely on us to launch their newest products

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Why are we changing?• We aren’t organized to adapt to the

changing audience demands on allplatforms

• The pace of change across our print, .com and mobile platforms is astounding!

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Audience

Content Advertising

Alignment is Critical

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Newspaper volumes are stable …and important to our future!

1.8M net paid volumesFLAT to YE2009

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USATODAY.com is seeing continued growth.

Unique visitors Up 15% since YE2009

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Pace of growth in mobile is incredible!

90M mobile impressions up 32Mand 58% since YE2009

Mobile downloads up 2.2M and 71% since YE 2009

* 3M iPhone*1.3M Android*790K iPad

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1. What is our content strategy?Building off our brand strengths…

Unwavering commitment to 1st Amendment and watchdog journalism

Unique Content – created, acquired and “made better” by our staff

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2. What is our audience strategy?

Change the conversation with consumers

Committed to interacting, listening, understanding and serving our audience like never before

Unleashing our greatest potential in digital audience growth…

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Changes at the top

• New departments at USA TODAY

• New faces at the top of some

departments

• A new way of doing business that aligns

sales efforts with the content we produce

• … and focuses heavily on innovation and

new platforms

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Questions for the newsroom

• How can we move even faster to a multi­platform environment?

• What can we do to build on our success with the iPhone, iPad and other mobile devices?

• What sort of structure and workflow should we have to match the world’s best?

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Outside interviews

• Politico• The Guardian• Yahoo!• The New York Times• TBD (Allbritton Communications)• Los Angeles Times• Dallas Morning News

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What we learned• The Guardian does fewer stories, better

• The first 30 minutes of covering a news story is critical (think Web­first)

• The best are organized around coverage teams or pods – empowered to move quickly

• … and they have a very lean structure with an emphasis on content creation

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Which led us to …

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Putting it all together

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Where we've been … where we're going

• Newspaper Company Media Company• Print­Centric Multi­Platform• Organized by Departments Organized by Teams + Verticals

• Hierarchical structure Empowered team leaders

• Protective of turf Readily sharing resources• Limited view of metrics Keen awareness of metrics

• Innovative on Occasion Organized for Innovation

• Loosely aligned on business goals Tight alignment

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What it means in the newsroom

We'll focus less on print … and more on producing content for all platforms (Web, mobile, iPad, and other digital formats.) Print will pick up more stories we posted first on other platforms or a modified version of a blog post or afternoon/evening news story.

We'll be organized around beefed up content teams and we'll empower them (and their team leaders) to truly take charge of their areas of coverage, delivering the news and enterprise to all platforms … and communicating frequently with those on the Distribution/Programming desk.

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We'll have fewer editors (i.e., managers) and fewer edits on a story or graphic. And copy desks will more often be the first read on a story headed for online.

Yes, we'll still focus on unique enterprise and visuals … but on enterprise for allplatforms, not just 1A.

We'll have a new meeting schedule and meetings will focus on producing/planning content for ALL platforms at a high­speed, digital pace (as opposed to print­centric.)

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We'll focus on doing "fewer stories, better." On a story like the oil spill, our content team (energy, environment) will flood the zone and stay on top of the story 24/7 with help from the GA desk; at the same time, that team and our Investigative team will start looking at deeper opportunities.

We'll focus more on the "first half hour" of a breaking story, especially if it's on our core beats. So, if Tiger Woods crashes his car, we throw everybody we need at the story immediately and we beat ESPN and CNN.

… And then we'll come back aggressively, on Day 2, and in a week or a month with a deep, investigative look if appropriate.

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Copy desks (and others) will work an earlier day. Since we'll be less focused on print deadlines, we'll be posting (and editing stories) all day, not for a 7­10 PM editorial close.

More people will post content on weekends, on an ongoing basis but also if a breaking or running story demands it. This would include the GA/rewrite desk as well as the section front managers.

And we'll do more watchdog, investigative and database work with teams focused on each area in addition to the beefed­up content teams.