Newsroom changes
- 17 Jun 08, 09:50 AM
Readers of this website will not, I hope, have noticed any seismic changes over the past couple of days in the way it looks and behaves.
Behind the scenes, though, we've been moving all the journalists who work on the main online newsdesk from their traditional home on the 7th floor of أغر؟´«أ½ TV Centre in west London down to the main newsroom on the 1st and 2nd floors.
So the online news teams have now taken up residence in the newly configured أغر؟´«أ½ Multimedia Newsroom, next to their TV and radio counterparts, and the newsgathering teams who deploy the أغر؟´«أ½'s news reporters.
The aim is to enable a better focus on telling stories well in video, audio, stills, graphics and text, and getting the right mix of each for any given story on any platform - whether TV, radio, web, mobiles, interactive TV or digital text.
We're not the only news organisation working out how to respond to the rapid changes taking place in technology and the ways audiences look for their news - as have .
And every organisation doubtless faces slightly different challenges as it changes. For us one of these has been the practical difficulty of moving 100 or so journalists and all their equipment from one working newsroom to another whilst simultaneously maintaining a continuous 24-hour online news service.
It hasn't been that simple to do, so I am rather relieved it has happened. For the journalists working on the website, it feels like a big change, a bit like the start of a new era and a graduation from the online-only newsroom where أغر؟´«أ½ News Online started in 1997.
Looking ahead, what difference will it make to users of the site? It should mean that you see us becoming an even better showcase for all the best of the أغر؟´«أ½'s journalism - in video, audio and text; local, national and international.
PS. Here's another change we've made. As of this week, all our blogs will have full RSS feeds, meaning it's much easier to read them in places like Google Reader. My colleague Jem Stone has written more about it on the أغر؟´«أ½ Internet blog.
Steve Herrmann is editor of the
