“At least part of the answer has to be a radical restructuring of the news production process,” writes Gordon.

Here’s what Gordon outlines as the typical newspaper journalistic production process:

Typical newspaper

   1. Reporter gathers information (takes notes)
   2. Photographer shoots photo
   3. Reporter writes article
   4. Photo editor chooses photo for publication
   5. Editor edits article
   6. Copy editor edits article
   7. Copy editor or designer places article and photo on a print page
   8. Copy editor or designer places photo on a print page.
   9. Copy editor or designer writes headlines and photo captions
  10. Web editor or producer places article on a Web page
  11. Web producer places photo on a Web page
  12. Web producer writes blurb (teaser description from home page or section front)
  13. Web producer places article on home page or section front

In comparison, here’s the shorter – more efficient – process that takes place at the Medill School of Journalism (Gordon acknowledges that his students only have to put up a website, not a paper):

Medill Chicago

   1. Reporter gathers information -- text and photos
   2. Reporter writes article
   3. Reporter writes headline, caption and blurb (teaser description from Web home page or section front)
   4. Reporter places article and photo on a Web page
   5. Editor edits the article, including photo, caption and headline
   6. Web producer places article on home page or section front

While the comparison between the new process and the typical process may not be fair (and puts a huge workload on the reporter’s shoulders), there are some fundamental differences and lessons that the typical newsroom can consider:

- The reporter becomes the main person involved in the story production process.

- The editor becomes responsible not only for a story’s text but for its entire environment.

- For web production (and somewhat in print), Gordon advocates the widespread use of templates. These may be monotonous but do save time systematically in the production process, for any piece of content.

- Most print layouts must be hand-crafted by designers, “but at least some inside pages could, literally, be laid out by a computer following a set of programmed rules,” writes Gordon.

Perhaps Gordon’s main point is as follows: “why, at most newspapers, we have separate production desks for Web and print”. And in that sense, Gordon hits the target. Journalistic production, now that it is equally centered on print and online, can be made more efficient through integrated newsrooms.

It may be even true that, as Gordon claims, adding only one or two steps to his process could result in a print product alongside the web publication.

It seems that while Gordon’s proposal is alluring though, it is in fact an oversimplified model of a newspaper’s production process. Multimedia training and a diverse set of skills are essential for modern journalists, but there are also practical reasons that explain why the newsroom was divided into specialized skills. Putting such a weight on the reporter might cut staff costs for other roles, but can also lead to a less efficient process on the whole.

On the other hand, maybe Gordon is right – at least he is thinking in terms of modern journalism and the contemporary readership and requirements for a paper, whether in print, online or both.

If you weren’t convinced by Gordon’s specific steps, he also proposes a few guidelines to help your own reinvention of the journalism production process:

“A 21st century production system can and should:

    * motivate journalists to produce multimedia;
    * make it easy for reporters to produce and package related content themselves;
    * enable the production of multiple products from a single content database;
    * allow production to be more efficient;
    * and enable news organizations to reach more people using more distribution channels.”

Source: Readership.org through Ifra Executive News Service