- Chapter 4 -

For the last few years, newsroom integration of print and online operations has been the priority for many editors. Although some have dismissed integration as a mere cost-cutting measure while other consider print and online should remain distinct operations, it seems that a fully integrated newsroom staffed by multimedia journalists will only become more necessary to produce journalism of the digital age.

Integration: More than moving chairs. In April 2009, media analyst Steve Yelvington described some of the lessons learned while helping newsrooms to integrate. Ultimately, merging print and online staff is and was "the right thing to do". But "moving the chairs around isn't enough," said Yelvington. A complete overhaul is often necessary, and quite a few newspapers have had to move into entire new offices before engaging the process. According to Paul Johnson, Guardian Deputy Editor and overall Head of News, the Guardian "couldn't make the big leap until we moved to a new building." Yelvington also warned editors about possible friction between online and print journalists, often fuelled by preconceptions about the other, lesser-known medium.

Promoting print and online, together : Austrian paper Wirtschafts Blatt has proved that intelligent print and online promotion can bolster both products, as the paper managed to double newspaper subscriptions thanks to collaboration between its Web and print teams. According to award-winning newspaper designer Mario Garcia, who worked with the paper, staffers were trained to work both online and in print, and to think of themselves as news people rather than newspaper people.

Le Figaro: a case of vertical integration :Exchange between Luc de Barochez, Editor-in-Chief of lefigaro.fr, Pascal Pouquet, Director of New Media at Le Figaro and Frédéric Sitterlé, founder of Sport24 and former New Media Director at lefigaro.fr