Want to get really digital? Get rid of digital!
Do you really want to become a digital newsroom? Then get rid of your digital team. They're a crutch.
The Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., undertook an ambitious change in structure, job duties and workflow in 2014 that no longer relies on digital specialists. Content creators are tasked with ... creating content – in the form that best serves readers. They are liberated from production obligations. Their editors don't participate in meetings that target stories to Page One or certain sections. They don't even know about news hole. They don't think in terms of daily and Sunday.
If the best way to tell a story is to live-tweet it, that's what reporters do. A video instead of a gallery? How about a video instead of narrative text, if that's what serves readers?
A separate team is tasked with creating the print edition from their work.
This isn't digital first. If producing a printed newspaper proved to have been short-sighted, then producing print and digital products is doubling down on a bad idea. Digital first? No. It's content first. It's reader-first.
At the News Industry Summit in Sarasota, receive a report from the front lines. Sun-Sentinel Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Howard Saltz will discuss the hits, misses (the foosball table) and some unexpected benefits. The model may be catching on: A half-dozen major newspapers have sent observers to the Fort Lauderdale newsroom, and the model is the basis for changes being made in Chicago, Los Angeles and other sister papers.
Saltz was named publisher and editor-in-chief of Sun Sentinel Media Group in March 2016. In this new role, he's responsible for content in all products, in all formats, in a platform-agnostic newsroom. He's also responsible for the day-to-day business of the company, including overseeing directors from each division.
He joined as editor in 2011 and led the Sun-Sentinel to its first Pulitzer Prize: the 2013 Gold Medal for Public Service, considered journalism's highest honor. The Sun-Sentinel newsroom has been cited as one of the country's most innovative in integrating digital and print journalism.
Saltz worked for 25 years for Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group. He was editor of some of the smaller papers in that company, then landed as deputy managing editor of the flagship Denver Post in the '90s. He became that newspaper's first digital editor at a time when no one – including Saltz – knew what that meant. He joined MediaNews Group's corporate staff in 2006 as vice president for digital content. The job entailed working with editors and publishers at the company's 55 daily newspapers to develop digital strategies.
Born and raised in New York City, Saltz is a graduate of the State University of New York. He studied math, mostly, plus history and journalism.
Saltz is chairman of the Dean's Advisory Board at Florida International University's School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He is a frequent speaker at universities and to community and industry groups.
He has been a Fellow at USC's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.
This year's News Industry Summit will include 24 sessions offering content for all audiences – with general sessions and breakout sessions that simultaneously target dailies, weeklies and editors. You choose the programs that fit your specific interests.
Register here by Aug. 31 before costs go up $100
Reserve your hotel room before Aug. 26
Keywords
Summit, Saltz, digital, Fort Lauderdale
