Since I arrived to USA I have noticed so many negative signs in the journalism industry because of the internet boom and new ways young people are used to get news and information.
Circulation of printed newspapers declines while the number of people who read news through the internet or cell phones or even using e-readers as ipad and kindle increased significantly.
The new developments in the journalism industry was the reason I made my decision to join the web department in Los Angeles Times where I spend the second part of my fellowship.
For 2 weeks I was able to be part of the daily operations in the home page of www.latimes.com, this enabled me to notice so many important steps done every day by the editorial team to keep the website of California’s largest newspaper in terms of circulation updated and in a good shape.
I learned that the web department has a number of journalists who works only for the website, the main task of the web team is to be involved in the operations of the print newspapers in order to make sure that the website is updated and has the latest details on different beats.
The web team representative attends the print edition’s meetings and make some requests from every department which is usually sending updates on every story that is developing during the day.
The web team faces some difficulties because in a big organization like Los Angeles Times not all people are ready to adapt to the new system and accept new tasks to send briefs to the website, especially if those people worked for all their lives in the print age.
Los Angeles Times stated its development plan taking the web into consideration about 3 years ago by starting innovation department.
The innovation department in the beginning used to have an office out of the news room in what looked like a laboratory for new products and services to develop.
The web department that includes a blogging team and all user generated content or interactivity or engaging readers services are now working under supervision from a web managing editor who is responsible to work with journalists on daily basis to make sure the newspaper is powerful online the same way it is in the print edition.
The online managing editor holds a weekly meeting with representatives from all departments involved in the web operations to discuss editorial projects that needs web designing and interactive ways of storytelling.
The most important lesson I learn during my stay in Los Angeles Times is how a big organization with a long history of traditional print media adapts to the internet age.
Los Angeles Times paid the price of the crisis facing the whole industry by laying off many people from their staff as this was the only solution to save the organization financially.
This situation will be repeated in Egypt in the next 2 years when the internet and mobile boom reaches its peak.
Usually in these conditions the big organizations suffer the most as they can’t limit their expenses with a huge number of people working for them while small size organizations survive as they can make drastic changes easier.
The revolutionary road we are into nowadays is similar to the impact of Ice Age on dinosaurs; all small creatures survived it after different form of adaptations while the huge reptiles failed.
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