There are likely to be lots of column inches about the plans announced by the Los Angeles Times to to shift its priorities from print to the web.
The key points from the memo to staff from publisher David Hiller are:
- Accelerate our growth on the web by allocating more resources, and speeding product development, to improve the site and grow our online audience.
- Re-orient/re-tool the whole company to think and operate across multiple media.
- Develop online, but also change the print newspaper to better meet the changing needs of print users.
- In all media – focus, focus, focus on growing local audience.
Turning around an institution like the LA Times with hundreds of reporters is going to be tough. It is going to start by putting everyone on a crash course to learn about filing and posting to the web.
But this is more than learning a little HTML or how to use a content management system. It is about changing the mindset of a generation of journalists.
This is the greatest challenge, not only for the LA Times, but to every other newspaper trying something similar. And this is the greatest obstacle to success.
Latimes.com has a lot of catching up to do. The site has 18 people working on it, compared the 200 employees at the Washington Post and the 50 employed by the New York Times.
But it has no option but to evolve and adapt. And the journalists at the LA Times need to take this on board and be part of the process.
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