I have a few loose education stories to wrap up before I start government full time, but when I do, I will cover Skagit County and the cities of Burlington, Mount Vernon and Sedro-Woolley (with smaller cities as needed). Social services is also part of my beat. I’ve probably forgotten something in there — it is a really large beat.

The Education Writers Association was invaluable in my growth as an education reporter. In February I attended a statistics bootcamp, which taught me how to effectively use Access and Excel (I had used Excel for years but the training was a whole new level). Those skills are transferable to any beat.

Reporters were handed a four-page outline of how we can incorporate the Web into our daily reporting.

Here’s a brief outline of the new Web strategy. If you want to read the entire four-page handout (culled to three pages with my excellent paper-folding-and-taping skills), read the PDF here (includes bonus doodles).

• Editors will select which stories have the best potential for multimedia during their weekly editors meeting. At least two stories per week will be assigned for “multi-platform” presentation.
• Editors are responsible for coordinating the production and editing of the multimedia.
• Photographers must “think video” for breaking news.
• Photographers are a “first priority” to train in video production and editing. Editors and interested reporters come after the photogs are trained. Training will come from in-house or online sources.
• Reporters are responsible for audio recording and editing, including narration and interviews with subjects.

Reporters seemed skeptical and skittish because of the layoffs around the country. Even our own newsroom is not immune from this recent trend. Our business reporter position is frozen. Someone mumbled “do more with less,” which earned a funny statement from Don Nelson:

“I hate the phrase ‘More with less.’ It’s a despicable lie,” Don said. “I prefer ‘Different and better.’”

(For the record, I hate “more with less” with a passion, and Don’s comment has to be the most awesome comeback to it that I’ve ever heard. Cynical journalists are free to disagree, but I still love my job.)

To bring you all up to speed on the history of the SVH, the Web has been secondary to the dead-tree edition for some time now. Last July, the SVH rolled out its new Web site, www.goskagit.com. Before that, the Web site hosted only one story per day, and had a two-sentence description of other stories that were in the paper. If you wanted to view the other stories, you had to buy a paper or subscribe online. We still don’t publish every story online. The reasoning is “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?”

I really love our new Web plan, which states that reporters should write for the Web before the paper if it is breaking news (see examples on page 3 in the PDF). One editor said “it doesn’t matter if it starts online or in the paper anymore.”

If a reporter finds herself swamped, she is to go to her editor and ask for a triage of duties. If a story doesn’t get covered, the reporter should try not to worry about it (though the ones who care about their beats do anyway). Editors also stressed that reporters would be trained on company time and that it would happen fairly soon.

The only barrier to our strategy is our Web site, which is currently unable to display SoundSlides presentations. I’ve been creating audio for some time now, and there are some unpublished SoundSlides in a folder just waiting for the Web site to be ready. A minor hitch, I’m sure, but if anyone has suggestions I’m happy to forward them to an editor.

I’ll post updates on this transition whenever I’m allowed.

Nick Eaton and crew did at the Spokesman-Review. Here is what he had to work with:

• make the Spokesman newsroom efficient while completing all if its objectives
• we can’t eliminate the print product
• we can’t eliminate the new radio initiative
• we can’t eliminate the community-oriented Voice sections
• we can’t suggest layoffs

The results are in from the team of eight.

Nick’s editor, Steve Smith, said in his blog that this is not a plan. Smith said he thinks young journalists have fewer ties with the past and not as much loyalty to the way things have always been done. Why were older journalists not asked to participate?

The fact is there always have been opportunities for veterans to participate in such discussions. Too often it is the smart young journalists whose ideas are discounted.

Nick includes a list of the main changes on his blog (read the blog or the PDF page for in-depth explanations):

1. Shift deadlines of non-daily stories to noon.
2. Create a universal reporters pool by combining the existing City, Business, Features, Voices (community extras) and 7 (weekly alt tab) desks. This allows stories produced by any writer to be used in any section of the newspaper, instead of having reporters assigned to specific sections. … The assistant (edtiors) … are assigned as follows: breaking news, watchdog, life, culture, money, Washington hyperlocal, Idaho hyperlocal and wire.
3. Create a hybrid universal copy desk, combining the day (features) and night desks. … Copy editors would read stories before they are published online, upholding the integrity of website. The idea is that the S-R is no longer just a newspaper, but a news organization that produces content to be published on multiple platforms: online, print and radio.
4. Combining the multimedia and photo departments into a Visuals Department.
5. Flattening the newsroom hierarchy, as depicted in the organizational chart.

Read the 12-page PDF file. Here you get an idea of the resources the S-R is working with. I also see that reporters are encouraged to gather and edit video for the Web site, but the Visuals Department is the final arbiter of what makes it to the Web or not. They even have a blog coordinator:

This person, chosen from among our experienced bloggers, will help train new recruits and act as a resource for running a successful blog. The coordinator also will help the online director conduct a review of existing Spokesman-Review and 7 blogs.

Check out some other changes that were not part of the focus of the study, but money-saving measures that the group of eight felt worth mentioning (starting on page 8 of the PDF file):

• Replace the traditional Monday paper with the Voices section (My impression is it’s a zoned edition? Someone please correct me if I’m wrong). Sunday reporter shift is eliminated and night copy desk reduced to save costs. “There will be a protocol in place to create a wrap for the section if something major happens on a Sunday night.”
• Less coverage of car crashes and mundane crimes, more compelling stories. Get away from the push to get a story first and toward telling a particular story well.
• Remove the online subscription wall.

Be sure to check out the organization chart on page 10. Definitely some very different ideas. It does seem very streamlined compared to newsrooms I have been in.

Some of this seems similar to the recently-announced Tampa Tribune reorganization, though to be fair, the Trib had a serious amount of layoffs and I think they had to change or be ineffective. Matt King posted in May about things newspapers should stop doing. I bet “ambulance chaser” would be on his list.

For the record, I read the S-R every day before I go to work. You guys do a great job, and I look forward to see what makes it off of this list and into the newsroom.

It may come as a shock to some that newspapers need to make money. Yes, we are the guardians of the First Amendment, a voice for the voiceless and the afflicters of the comfortable.

Newsrooms everywhere are in a downward spiral. Tampa Tribune editor in chief Janet Coats, according to blogger and news intern Jessica DaSilva, decided to reorganize the newsroom and reprioritize the newspaper’s coverage.

Essentially, it’s a shakeup of the traditional beat system. From Mindy McAdams’ blog:

• Managing editors
• 5-6 audience editors — keep in touch with what the print, TV, online audiences want/need
• 5 sections of reporting (all the reporters for print, TV and Web are mashed up together in these groups):

1. Deadline — for breaking/daily news
2. Data — specifically for database stuff
3. Watchdog — for investigative reporting
4. Personal journalism — stuff for people’s every day lives like weather, health, entertainment
5. Grassroots — citizen journalism

Outside of these groups are three “finishing” groups for print, TV and online to determine what stories should be covered and with what medium.

Read more of McAdams’ blog. I really like how she lays out the system for news coverage.

DeSilvas continues with some reaction from the newsroom on the day of the announcement:

“People need to stop looking at TBO.com as an add on to The Tampa Tribune,” (Coats) said. “The truth is that The Tampa Tribune is an add on to TBO.”

Wow. Someone said that? And that someone was the editor in chief? But wait… there’s more.

She continued from this point, saying she wasn’t sure, but that this had to be a step in the right direction. If we don’t move, she said, newspapers will continue their “death spiral – because that’s what this is.”

…

That’s how the news is, she said. There is a high demand for it, but with abundant access to it, it’s time to rethink how we can carve out a niche. Her idea? Hyperlocal journalism.

If they want national news, they have several national news sources to get it. Instead, the Trib should be used to give the community something they can’t get from the NY Times or WaPo. Give them their news.

Local content is the bread and butter of community papers, something larger newspapers are starting to realize. But community papers are starting to feel the pinch too, as I pointed out yesterday.

With all of the scares in the news industry, we need bold leaders who are not afraid to shake up the status quo. We need reporters who are not afraid to hold a microphone, or try to shoot a video. We also need a funding mechanism that works.

Granted, not everyone is happy. Sports reporters are calling it Black Wednesday, mostly because it eliminates the sports department and rolls every reporter together. Some reporters might work on sports assignments and they might work on city hall coverage. If that assessment is true, it’s a shakeup indeed, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.