The goal of such a newsroom? “Serve the public by collaborating with them and delivering the news they want on the platform of their choice,” says Glaser. This means that whether people want news on their cell phones, news in print, online videos, or personal participation in the news process, they can find it from one news provider.

Here are his ideas:

- Addition and subtraction of staff to produce a newsroom much smaller than that of an average local metro paper.

Additions would include: “Multi-platform multimedia reporters and producers comfortable working in text, stills, audio or video; online community managers; web development experts; mobile development experts; programmer-reporters or mash-up specialists.”

Subtractions: “Legacy media production people; legacy media distribution people, including newspaper delivery people; circulation departments; middle management; reporters who focus on one platform.”

-Advertising web pages that allow businesses to get close to customers. Businesses could produce their own web pages, including blogs and comments, allowing better transparency in advertising.

-Management changes. Instead of operating in a top-down hierarchy, newsrooms could involve more voices, including entry-level and citizen reporters, into decisions. This is tied to citizen participation:  editors could use citizen experts for quotes and information on specific topics, and include Digg-like features.

-Platform independence. “Not every story would get the multimedia treatment,” says Glaser. “That determination might be made by editorial staff at the start of the story idea, or it could be made on the fly depending on what media comes in from the community.”

-Looking outside the box for contributions. “Why not bring in a professional athlete to blog about sports, or a contractor to do a podcast about the housing market, or a registered nurse to run a discussion forum about health care issues?” says Glaser.

These specifics could help local news sources practice smart expansion – expanding not just for the sake of reaching more platforms, but to reach specific readers there.

Source: MediaShift through Ifra Executive News Source