E-Media Tidbits

desmoinesregister.com The Des Moines Register: It's not a newspaper anymore, it's an "information center."

I just received an e-mail from a Gannett staffer, forwarding along a memo sent out today across Gannett announcing a shift in how that company will manage its news operations: the "information center."

At the SEJ conference last weekend, I heard rumblings of this from some reporters who work for papers where Gannett has been piloting this strategy. Word is from the front lines is that the idea is to convert newspapers into "local information centers." It's not a completely comfortable fit, said these journalists, and they expressed concerns about how this might affect the quality of Gannett's in-depth reporting efforts.

Here are excerpts from today's memo from Gannett CEO Craig A. Dubow:

"Dear co-workers: I'd like to talk about a Gannett innovation called the Information Center. It's being launched now in some locations around the company, and plans are being made to broaden that rollout across Gannett.

"What is it? The Information Center is a way to gather and disseminate news and information across all platforms, 24/7. The Information Center will let us gather the very local news and information that customers want, then distribute it when, where and how our customers seek it. It is the essence of our Vision and Mission and a key element of our Strategic Plan.

"The Information Center, frankly, is the newsroom of the future. It will fulfill today's needs for a more flexible, broader-based approach to the information gathering process. And it will be platform agnostic: News and information will be delivered to the right media -- be it newspapers, online, mobile, video or ones not yet invented -- at the right time. Our customers will decide which they prefer.

"Plans for the Information Center have been nurtured and developed in the Newspaper Division over the past several months. Pilot projects took place in 11 locations. Three -- Des Moines, Sioux Falls and Brevard -- were full scale implementations of an Information Center while other sites tested different aspects of information gathering such as crowd sourcing and multimedia.

"What they found is remarkable: Breaking news on the Web and updating for the newspaper draws more people to both those media. Asking the community for help, gets it -- and delivers the newspaper into the heart of community conversations once again. Rich and deep databases with local, local information gathered efficiently are central to the whole process. The changes impact all media, and the public has approved. Results include stronger newspapers, more popular Web sites and more opportunities to attract the customers advertisers want.

"...Implementing the Center across Gannett quickly is essential. Our industry is changing in ways that create great opportunity for Gannett. Innovations such as the Information Center are one way we are meeting the challenge and implementing our strategic plan.

"Essential to the success of our plan is your support. We will do a company-wide audiocast on the Information Center in mid-November to explain more about how it will work. You can read more about the Information Center right now at http://gannett.gci/infocenter." [NOTE: That link, although included in the forwarded memo, does not function. I'm trying to track down the correct link.]

...So that's the official word from the top. I'd love to hear more from the front lines. If you work for Gannett and know more about this change, please comment below. If you wish to comment privately, e-mail me and let me know if I can share your comments, and how you'd prefer to be attributed.