At 1:01pm on February 19, 2009, Andy Hamilton said…: Hey Carrie,

Are you closer to having your work published online? I'm preparing to get into the thick of my research and am interested in reading about your experience. Cheers.

At 9:20am on January 31, 2009, Andy Hamilton said…: That's interesting about the investigative team. Readers I talk with are always asking for an investigative reporter, but we don't have anyone specifically assigned like that. Has that team you're referring to kind of been a staple of the newspaper? I guess I'm wondering why it was decided to invest so heavily in the investigative reporting. Is there that much of a demand for it, or is the paper hoping to keep readership up with juicy stories?

At 11:59am on January 30, 2009, Andy Hamilton said…: I'm confused about your sentence two comment ... are you talking about the was/were? Come on, didn't you spell check before you posted? Ha.
Oh yeah, congrats on the dissertation. I should have mentioned that earlier. That must be exciting. Is the final product available to read anywhere online?
About the newshub, is that to produce real-time news updates all hours of the day? Is the paper trying to be the one-stop place for new all the time?
As for 'evergreens,' sounds similar to a few things we have here, such as a package of stories, photos, videos all covering a single event. We have a continual link to a package about a large music festival that took place just up the road from here. Is this an example of the evergreen you're referring to?

At 7:59am on January 30, 2009, Andy Hamilton said…: Cool, what are some of the things the paper did during the transition? For example, our reporters were schooled in search engine optimization ... using key words and names in headlines and leads so online stories are easily found with a basic google search, increasing the odds that readers will come across MLive stories first and most. Also, the paper increased significantly the number of blogs it produced, including live blogs/chats with reporters in the court room during high profile trials.
About the universal copy desk, we haven't moved to that yet, but when it happens our building will be the home of one copy desk for all seven of our sister papers. It will be a 24-hour operation. This will obviously mean the end of these newspapers' individual layout styles. Hopefully it won't mean a over-homogenized product.
All of this, as I'm sure you came across in your case study, means some people will be losing their jobs. Was this aspect a part of your dissertation? How did the people in the newsroom handle this? It's often like a family in these places because many people have been working together for so long. What was that dynamic like in the newsroom you observed?

At 8:14pm on January 29, 2009, Andy Hamilton said…: Hey, Carrie. I'm starting a case study at work on the transition of our newsroom. The newspaper's been redesigned and more large changes likely are on the way, including going to a universal copy desk. The case study is a final project for my graduate degree in Communications. Let me know if you want to exchange ideas.