LAT goal: "A 24/7 operation that breaks news all the time online"

from experience: YEP.

 

We're hourly (but I don't know how much longer that will last). Management is salaried.

 

I'm not saying it won't be, but it doesn't have to be twice the work for a reporter, theoretically.

It can just be different. News breaks, you file a short version of a story and get it on the Web. Continue adding information as you get it, just like you would a print story. It might then be as simple as pushing a button a few extra times during the course of writing the story to send an updated version to the Web. And you can continue to have the edited version sent back to you to add to so they don't have to reedit the whole thing every time.

You'll end up with a final version of the story that's the last one to go up on the Web, and the one that makes the print edition. So you're just sending to the Web extra times instead of just writing until deadline on one version.

Again, I'm not naive. This is theoretically. The process should be able to work without too much extra angst for the reporter.

Emphasis on the word "should." I'm sure there are going to be some major pains in the ass for quite some time.

 

Well, that's the hope. But, there is going to be more training and excercise for both reporters and desk people. Until we as an industry figure out what we're doing to remain viable, there are going to be some growing pains.
All that is at stake, is journalism as we know it. I wish that were hyperbole. I wish.

 

This is just such a classic "everything old is new again" deal. Back in the Roaring '20s, when there were more newspapers than the market could support, and the newfangled radio was making everyone in the business very nervous, papers had five, six, seven editions a day, and a sports scribe on assignment wrote and filed on a continuous basis as long as he was on the clock.
If given the assignment, any and all newspapers could function in the 24/7 breaking news universe. They couldn't do so AND provide anaysis, background, scoops, or investigative work at the same time without tripling the staff.

 

All true. And I neglected to mention podcasts, video, taking pictures with digital cameras in the field, etc. THIS could be a lot of extra work.

 

The L.A. Times' announcement sounds a lot like Gannett's "Information Center." Do more, and faster, with less -- but make sure everything is absolutely correct... somewhere along the line.

Whatever happened to, "Get it first, but first, get it right?"

 

Two words: Yahoo and Google.

 

Two more: Craigslist and EBay.

 

I wouldn't say they're ahead of the curve. Even among newspapers, they're only on the front half of the curve. I hate to point out the obvious, but CNN has been doing the 24-hour news thing for 30 years now, and they've been doing it on the internet, I dunno, at least five. And like others, I think it remains to be seen whether they can get it done while reducing staff. Writers here that 24/7 thing and start wondering when they'll ever get an hour off for lunch, let along a day off.

 

May I add Wikipedia?

 

Ahead of the curve? There are papers all over the place, every one of them a fraction of the size of the Times, who adopted this web-first mentality a long time ago. It's the right approach, but the LAT is rather late to this party.