The New Haven Register announced a reorganization of its newsroom yesterday. The move includes the formation of three new teams: one dedicated to investigative journalism, one to promote user engagement, and one to handle breaking news.

The new investigative and in-depth reporting division will be the first team officially dedicated to investigative reporting at The Register in 20 years. It will feature articles in an "explainer" format, to look deeper at issues that affect the paper's readership, as well as fact-checking statements by public figures to hold them to account.

The move perhaps contradicts ideas from commentators like Dean Starkman (in this article at least) that the move towards digital journalism puts the media in danger of leaving serious reporting by the wayside: "Public-interest reporting isn't just another tab on the home page," writes Starkman.

Matt DeRienzo, Connecticut Group Editor for the Journal Register Company, which owns the New Haven Register, acknowledges these worries in a blog post. He references an article by Ken Doctor for Nieman Journalism Lab about the economics of 'Digital First' and the recent merger between the Journal Register Company and MediaNews Group. Doctor sees the financial sense behind the move, but asks "What about the journalism?... Are the readers, the citizens of [the JRC's] communities, better served?

DeRienzo answer is an emphatic yes. First of all, he writes that 'Digital First' journalism is better at handling breaking-news stories. He gives the example of Hurricane Irene, which showed that the speed and diversity of the JRC's reporting is "light years ahead" of where it used to be. "Our audience has benefited," writes DeRienzo.

But more than that, DeRienzo cites The Register's newsroom reorganization as evidence that "as Digital First shifts emphasis away from the print production process, it is freeing up resources to invest in better journalism." The JRC is able to shift resources into "slow news" and create investigative reporting positions "by consolidating positions that were focused either entirely or primarily on the process of putting out the print edition of the newspaper."

De Rienzo's conclusion are backed up by his boss Jim Brady, the Editor-in-Chief of Digital First Media, which runs the JRC. "Quality journalism and digital journalism are not mutually exclusive," states Brady in the press release.

Brady goes into more detail in a new blog post, where he writes that the reorganization of The Register newsroom "shows that you can address the needs of traditional journalism while still reorienting your newsroom toward the future." He argues that the assumption that quality journalism and digital journalism are opposed stems from the fact that many 'Digital First' media companies have reduced their staff. But Brady argues that the layoffs have not only taken place with 'Digital First' media: "Reducing staff is not part of going digital; it's part of a natural re-sizing of newsrooms that's been made necessary by the new economics of media," he writes.

So is the New Haven Register newsroom reorganization the beginning of a bright new future, in which savings made from going digital can be re-invested in investigative reporting? Michele McLellan, who blogs for the Knight Digital Media Center is very positive: "It's encouraging to see a number of recent newsroom reorganizations. Let's hope for more in 2012."

Sources: JRC, CJR, Connecticut Newsroom, Jim Brady, Knight Digital Media Center