New jobs are set to be created and others placed at risk of redundancy in a new Trinity Mirror plan for a “digitally-led” newsroom.
The publisher is planning to roll-out a new project entitled Newsroom 3.1 across its regional operations, with the Newcastle and Teesside centres leading the way.
It is introducing a new editorial structure to support what it calls a “digital first” publishing process, with fresh content created to meet key “digital audience spikes” during the day.
As a result of the changes, 25 new jobs are being created while eight existing roles are being placed at risk of redundancy.
Titles affected include Newcastle daily the Chronicle, sister titles The Journal and Sunday Sun, and the Teesside-based Evening Gazette.
Regional editorial director Neil Benson said the changes would mean journalists’ working days were “no longer built around our print products.”
The plan envisages the creation of new digital roles such as social media editors and advance content writer, while other new roles will include those of Newcastle United editor and Middlesbrough FC editor.
Content created for the papers’ websites will be “edited and packaged” into the print titles by specialist print publishing units supported by title editors.
Darren Thwaites, editor-in-chief Trinity Mirror North East said: “We’re delighted to be leading the way in transforming our business for a successful digital future. The demand for local content is as great as ever and it’s our job to give the audience what they want, when they want it.
“We’ll provide a brilliant service for our rapidly-growing digital audience, while producing great newspapers by editing the best of everything into an entertaining format every day.”
Added Neil: “Digitally, we have made great progress over several years but we now need to accelerate the growth and engagement level of our digital audiences.
“In an era when audiences want access to live-up-to-the-minute information across a variety of platforms, our working day will no longer be built around our print products. The new structure gives us the capability to produce more digital content all day and every day, while still producing brilliant newspapers.”
Trinity Mirror said Newsroom 3.1 will be rolled out across its regional news brands throughout the year.
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Wow!
Newsroom 3.1!!
Does that mean we get regular updates and downloads and eventually, like the latest ios, it blows your battery?
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Trinity Mirror gets it right at last?
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Built around digital content that has no way of paying for itself. Why not invest in print? Works for Metro.
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I think they have a good idea here as long as its executed well but until revenues online exceed print revenues you would be mad to cut from print further.
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But I bet it won’t make any real profit.
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At last. We’ve spent years going on about it, now we’re finally doing rather than talking.
But is it too little, too late?
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Do they really believe the tosh they come out with? It would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic.
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Newsroom 3:1.Does that mean doing the work of three people while receiving the pay for one?
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More listicles…. can’t wait.
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This is undoubtedly the right way for newsrooms to go. This is how they should be in this day and age – digitally-led, with the web put first. So hats off to Trinity for going ahead with this. My obvious concern though, like others here, is where is all the money going to suddenly come from to not only pay for this but also to generate profits?
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Might finally have seen the light… now they have to have the confidence to hang on until customers get used to it and start paying for news and ads.
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This actually sounds as though someone has been thinking about it for once instead of just cost-cutting. Way forward, as long as the resources are there.
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Hope they play the long game on this and don’t go trigger happy if instant results don’t happen. Plan for next week, not just the next day.
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