'USA Today' Latest to Merge Web And Print Newsrooms

By: Joe Strupp USA Today is combining its online and print newsrooms, the paper announced Monday, bringing the daily's 75 Web news staffers under a newsroom that will include 500 editorial employees.

"The goal in combining the two newsrooms is to create a single 24-hour news organization that will inform and engage readers on multiple platforms," USA Today Editor Ken Paulson said in a statement announcing the move. "That means going beyond arm's-length collaboration. Starting today our goal is to begin conceiving and planning our coverage as one unit, thinking more strategically about the deployment of our newsgathering resources in a world in which news has become an on-demand commodity."

Spokesman Steve Anderson said the move does not increase or decrease staffing, but it does realign the management structure for more of a streamlined process.

The move also means that USATODAY.com Vice President and Editor-in-Chief Kinsey Wilson is promoted to executive editor of USA TODAY, joining current executive editor John Hillkirk in that role. Hillkirk and Wilson will share oversight of daily news operations and content development, reporting directly to Paulson.

USAToday.com attracted more than 10 million unique visitors in October, according to Neilson//NetRatings, second among newspapers sites only to The New York Times. USA Today is the nation's largest weekday print newspaper, averaging 2,296,335 copies in the Audit Bureau of Circulation's latest FAS-FAX reporting period, although that number had decreased by 0.59% over the previous six months.

"Moon and Webber said the move to combine the newsrooms is a response to the growing importance of the Internet as a vehicle for news delivery," according to a company press release. "The new structure will allow both operations to begin working together to make the transition from a world of stand-alone news products to one in which news is available where, when, and how consumers desire."

Wilson said news operations would be combined in stages as staffs become more familiar with the demands of publishing to multiple platforms.

"We will start by looking at areas such as travel, entertainment and breaking news, where we already have a good history of collaboration, and see how we can integrate our operations more effectively. We'll build from there," Wilson said.

Hillkirk said the merger of the staffs will enhance the journalism in both the newspaper and online.

"By combining the newsrooms, we will be able to improve our report to readers both in print and online. This will allow us to develop a better understanding of the expanded storytelling capabilities," Hillkirk said.
Webber, to whom Wilson previously had reported, will continue to oversee the business operations of the Web site.

USA Today is the latest in a growing number of newspapers that have combined their print and online operations. Earlier this year, The New York Times and The Fresno (Calif.) Bee made similar moves.