Gannett plans to shift all of its newspapers to 24-hour converged (online and print) newsrooms, which most Gannett editors believe will require a marked change in approach and will require a restructuring of newsrooms.
The initiative, titled Information Project, requires each newsroom to submit a plan for a fully 24-hour converged newsroom by mid-November, with implementation by May, writes Editor & Publisher (via MediaBuyerPlanner).. Three papers, the Des Moines Register, (Sioux Falls) Argus Leader and Melbourne, Fla.'s Florida Today, have been implementing the approach in recent months as test sites
The convergence of online and print will likely mean an increase in daily web updates for Gannett. For example, the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, NY, has seen an increase in daily updates online from about three last January to between 12 and 15.
Karen Magnuson, editor of the Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle, has had her newsroom shifting priorities in the past year, practically eliminating its online department and shifting pieces of it to the main newsroom. Magnuson, who is also president of Associated Press Managing Editors, points out that as print circulation declines, people want to receive their information in different ways.