Building palaces in a time of MoJo
Editor and Publisher tackles an idea too often ignored among newspapers: Blowing up the newsroom.
E and P calls it Mobile Journalism, or MoJo. I think putting reporter and editors out in the field will result in better journalism, better morale and better employee health. Not to mention it could save big bucks for publishers. How many papers are struggling to finance fancy new buildings while laying off the people they built the buildings for? The two papers where I spent the bulk of my career (the Dayton Daily News and The Columbian) are both in that situation right now.
Some editors lament the loss of comradery such a move would create, and I’m sensitive to that. On the other hand, no one suggests that staffers never get together, and with technology it’s becoming easy to share tips and humor without being in the same room together. Frankly, I think not being cooped up together might have benefits, tearing down some of the GroupThink that plagues the industry.
I wouldn’t stop with the newsroom. In fact, Advertising and Circulation probably would be easier to disperse. I wouldn’t stop there, either. I would work toward distributing production to small plants or even to on-demand printers in kiosks and stores.
“Impossible!,” publishers will say, “We can’t have people spread out all over town!”
Then again, many of these same publishers are merging copy desks and outsourcing work to India …
