Sunday, August 29, 2010

Changes at USA Today

Major reorganization at USA Today.


http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/usa-today-will-reorganize-and-shed-jobs/?src=busln

5 comments:

Brittany said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brittany said...

As terrible as it is that many people will be losing their jobs, it will be interesting to see how USA Today operates with their new emphasis on "digital media operations." The internet is such a defining part of our culture now and so many news and media organizations are going to begin to adapt to the people's reliance on this technology. USA today isn't the only example of this transition- the Kindle (not directly associated to the news medium, but I feel is still in the same ballpark) has taken bound books and placed them into a small, hand-held electronic device. As extraordinary as I find this, I fear the day when we will no longer have black fingers from reading the newspaper or when we can no longer enjoy that new book smell. But on the contrary, I'm eager to see how media will conform to the people's mass ingestion of the internet and electronic devices. I hope that in the end these changes will lead to more jobs instead of less.

Casey Shreve said...

This is a sad article to have to read. Although, this seems to be somewhat of a shock that the "powerhouse", otherwise known as USA Today, would be cutting so many jobs, it is something they have been predicting for a while now. My senior year of high school I was awarded the Al Neuharth (Founder of USA Today) Free Spirit Scholarship, and with this scholarship I was able to go to Washington, D.C. for a week and be a part of the USA Today scene. As a young journalism student I was extremely anxious to hear what Mr. Neuharth would have to say about the present downfall of print journalism. I actually got to ask him that very question and he simply answered, "It's not about quitting, it's about conforming." USA Today is doing just that -- conforming, or "reorganizing" as this article puts it. I do not see it as being a shocking event, just a necessary one to keep the reputation of the paper strong.

Swindell said...

Bottom Line. I may be old, but I know ONE thing that doesn't change ... content creation is more science than art. And I teach it. Care not what platform you deliver it. Care some that the world is changing so fast. USA Today is NOT changing content creation. The Fourth Estate still needs trained, skilled writers ... who know news. We can all be taught to stream video to the web. We can't all be good at creating the stories that go there. Seriously, are we supposed to change what we do b/c of this? Think not. Prove me wrong.

Chris Swindell said...

I will go to my grave maintaining that people who can create content for consumption will always have a job. Tools to deliver that content can be taught on the job. Streaming is not a college skill. News values ... that's a college skill. Critical thinking, that, too. But, people who say that those who come out of college unable to balance the web have a liberal arts education all wrong. There, I said it.

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