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The Hindustan Times (HT) has been gradually integrating its print and online operations since last summer, when new managing editor Pankaj Paul stepped in (background here). By now, the sports desk is integrated (it served as “a model for excellence” for others) and the business team is to shortly follow in the same path.

(More) process-oriented workflows

Back in September 2007, Paul was discovering the HT’s organization and workflows – many of which were informal.

Since then, workflows have been changed to become more process-oriented. But there was no reason to fundamentally change the working culture. In the absence of a centralized content management system (CMS), Paul implemented processes that mimic a CMS: for example, Sports stories are edited and laid out only once across the newspaper, and are then dispatched to all regional editions (since they don’t typically differ from one region to the other).

Integration: video, once again

As has been the case for many, if not most, newspapers this past year, one of the main traits of newsroom integration – and the expansion of multimedia capacities – was the explosive development of video production.

In the last four months, the HT has already produced about 300 videos. Nearly another 100 are already assigned, so the total should be close to 400 by the end of the month.

Content ranges across the news spectrum, from interviews and profiles to simple news events and features. Most of these are short form (one to three minutes), but the paper is looking into longer pieces (seven to twelve minutes).

Did it take a team of a dozen fulltime journalists in order to achieve this? It actually took one dedicated fulltime multimedia editor (picked from the reporter staff due to his prior experience: he also produces slideshows and other interactive projects), and three part-time staffers. Paul is seeking to hire 2 more editors specifically for multimedia and video, as well as outsource three freelance editors. 10 more reporters are soon to follow the HT’s three-day, hands-on, in-house multimedia training.



Training top-down – more work for editors

Considering how much multimedia work the HT has produced, few staffers have gone through formal training. Only about 10 reporters have been trained – out of 750. Another 10 are on the way, and the next training session is only scheduled for mid-March.

The HT’s integration and formation has thus mostly happened at an editorial level so far, top-down. “Editors are the ones to bear the brunt of this,” said Paul, who at the beginning of the process straightforwardly told them, “I m asking you to do more work.” Paul held meetings with his editors during which he showed them best practices of other online newspapers he knew from working in the US.

Editors then walked reporters through the multimedia process, teaching them how to think multi-platform and encouraging them to file video and audio. Journalists now go out and look for multimedia opportunities. Photographers now take plenty extra pictures that can be used for online slideshows. “Those conversations are happening every single day, even for smaller stories.”

Importantly, Paul didn’t adopt a coercive approach in this process – although he acknowledges this may eventually come. “We need to let them experiment a little bit.”

By the end of next summer, about 50-60 reporters are to be trained videographers and editors.

Newsroom Design – hub and clusters

The HT was supposed to move into new premises and integrate its newsroom design, but this won’t happen until the end of May. Since last September, a few significant changes have occurred though: the online team now sits with the print staff. The newsroom design will probably emulate a hub-and-spokes model, with all top editors sitting together centrally – this doesn’t necessarily mean their respective departments will be behind them. More important is the verbal communication enabled at an editorial level.


In light of the HT’s experience, integration doesn’t necessarily have to follow an overwhelming, company-wide, scenario, as was the case for the Daily Telegraph, or Fairfax. Instead, integration can also happen gradually, through verbal communication and changes in habits, starting at the top and cascading down to the journalist level.

Source: Pankaj Paul, managing editor Hindustan Times