Shaken by the Covid-19 pandemic, the newsrooms have had to hasten the steps toward the remodeling of their logistical and hierarchical frames for news coverage.
There is no predetermined scheme, but one that determines the reality of a market and the ability of the spapers to transform rapidly and survive in the midst of a situation where the enemies are physical limitations, staff reduction and big declines in advertising revenues.
From a system mostly concentrated in the printed edition, we switched to another that made most of the reporters and designers outlive the digital mindset, the only option everyone had under times of home confinements, so as to now be the permanent, fastest and most extensive source of information.
With most of the staff confined to their houses, the model of alternating face-to-face with remote work took shape, and that’s how it’s remained until now, with the additional novelty of changing the routines of the meetings and releases of the paper.
Now all logistical efforts are conferred toward the different resources that the digital environment allows, with the dynamics of immediacy, the contextualization and verification of the facts and the more systematic use of audiovisuals, all of which form a very exhausting job that does not leave room for pauses.
Traditional publishers, in turn, assume other responsibilities, such as reprocessing and contextualizing the most relevant news disseminated by the digitals, incorporating proper analysis of all given situations and all their perspectives, to offer readers a more complete picture.
There, the tendency is to privilege this type of content, rather than to repeat the already known that may not be all that important, unless it can be enriched with new details or aspects.
Remodeling the newsrooms is just another aspect on the roadmap of the reinvention that manages harmonizes the two platforms, under the signs of mixed audiences that must be attended simultaneously and differently.
- Translated from Spanish by Randy Rodriguez.
Director's Thoughts 