These are two basic steps that the Times took in its move towards a more integrated newsroom:
- rethinking the “geography” (design) of the newsroom to facilitate the implementation of change – with the physical limitations of the current newsroom before the Times moves out in about two years.
- using psychology: this may sound like a basic point, but it takes a lot of smooth communication to get staffers to give up their old habits.

The Times had to deal with cumbersome pillars when rethinking its newsroom design.

A few tips from Times Online:
- it was redesigned earlier this year to make “every page a homepage.”
- Articles only live in one place and section – if not this tends to confuse Google and search engines, on which the Times is very dependent for traffic (60% of traffic comes through search engines and external links, 27% from Google).

Al Trivino, art director for new projects at News International, gave a presentation about what he thought would be the future formats for newspapers, which would be a hybrid between a fixed newspaper format and structure, and the functionality of browsers. These would be delivered on e-paper-like multimedia platforms.

Editors’ reactions were mixed. Some thought this vision tried to reestablish the romantic idea of the print newspaper in a now digital world. Others are already working on similar projects. Do you have any comments?


No pictures were allowed when visiting the Financial Times' three-week old newsroom.

Here are a few ideas from the FT:

- Lunch-hour master classes provide training for journalists during their lunch break. They can eat their sandwich while watching clips teaching them how to blog, how to get a scoop…
- Storybuilding technique: in the FT’s new workflow, a story is posted online early the day (starting as a 300-word brief for example) and is updated throughout as the assigned journalist gets more information. It builds up throughout the day until it’s eventually fit to print. A specialized correspondent can also take over the story if required.

You can also read a few tips from yesterday’s visit at the Daily Telegraph. We’ll have more detailed analyses starting next week.