Wired Magazine, has an interesting article about a Gannett, the publisher of USA Today and 90 other local newspapers. Gannett to Crowdsource News reports that the editorial side of Gannett's operations will be reorganized into an "Information Center" comprised of seven prmary job areas that indicate a shift in focus toward 1) more participation by their readership; 2) mulitmedia communication, beyond the printed page; 3) 24 hour news coverage; 4) more focus on local news and 5) greater leveraging of the information embedded in their news stories.

The plan is very much in line with our view of organizing news information which is why AlwaysBlogging is a "multi-media" blog and why it is focused on the topic of content management. Any given piece of information is relevant to many contexts - the key to extracting maximum value lies in organizing information so that it can be incorporated into as many contexts as apply. This suggests variations on both the medium and the message.

Follow up:

The Crowdsoucing blog by Wired Magazine contributing editor Jeff Howe lists the Gannett Information Center's seven primary job areas:

Digital — selecting the best platform for news delivery;

Public Service — extending First Amendment coverage, in part by involving readers and asking for community input on investigative areas;

Community Conversation — expanding the concept of the editorial page; managing staff commentary, from editorials and blogs to columns; and encouraging community participation online;

Local — expanding local coverage and re-establishing sports, business and feature reporting into hyper-local areas;

Custom Content — connecting with identified target audiences and looking for efficiencies in repurposing content across all platforms;

Data — elevating the practice of managing and acquiring deep local information;

Multimedia — leading all visual presentation across every platform; photographers will be trained for any type of multimedia.