Innovation in Reorganization

The Information Department of the San Jose Mercury News

Introduction

  • Why the Change
  • Information Needs at the San Jose Mercury
  • Buiding the Information Department
  • Staffing, Training, and Resources
  • What's Changed
  • What Were the Changes
  • 10 Reasons to Investigate

Why the Change?

  • Company-wide Reorganization
  • Expanding Marketing Department
    • New Product Deveopment
    • Marketing Communications
  • Centralizing Information Resources

Information Needs at the San Jose Mercury News

  • Editorial
    • Breaking News Stories
    • Investigative Research
    • Computer-Aided Research
    • Section/Product Changes & Additions

  • Advertising
    • Customer Presentations
    • Target Account ists
    • Competitive Information

  • Marketing
    • Sizing Market for New Products
    • Competitive Information

  • Finance
    • Competitive Pricing
    • Market Trends

  • Circulation
    • Sales Initiatives
    • Promotional Campaigns

  • Administration
    • Panning & Budgeting
    • Background Information

  • People, Communities, Companies
    • Speaking Engagements
    • Pricing

  • Human Resources
    • Compensation Study Market Information
    • Empoyment/Salary Statistics

  • New Media (Mercury )
    • Database Information
    • Customer-Support Issues

  • Operations

Organization Change: Before
Organization Change: After
Organization Chart


Research Analysts

Design, collect and analyze research to be used in editorial content, strategic decision making, and analysis of marketing opportunities for the company and its current and potential customers.

Librarians

Provide database and other secondary research services to the company and its current and potentia customers (both interna and externa incuding readers and advertisers), process and preserve the historic databases, coect and manage resources, and train empoyees on the use of information resources, incuding the Internet.

What's Changed for the Employees?

Librarians

Analysts

  • Technology
  • Client Base
  • Knowledge of the business side of the newspaper
  • Access to marketing and business databases
  • Presentation of information
  • Technology
  • Client Base
  • Knowledge of the newsroom
  • Access to online databases
  • More information at fingertips

What's Changed for the Company?

  • Reporters get a broader range and more in-depth information in an organized format with anaysis.
  • Research, incuding focus-groups, competed prior to making changes to the Editoria sections.
  • Customer and potentia customer information improved.
  • More knowedge of product potentia
  • Improved Market Intelligence.

What Were the Challenges to the Company?

  • Two departments with very different cutures becoming a team
  • Learning to share resources and information
  • Defining access boundaries for specific databases
  • Learning about each other's skis and capabiities.

What Else was Going on In The Information Department

  • Relocation of Both Departments
    • including new workstations and computers
  • New Employees
  • Training
    • Proprietary databases
    • Internet
    • Sales Training
    • MS Office/Access
    • MN Database Changes
    • Development of Intranet Pages.

What Else was Going on Outside the Dept.

  • Training in the Newsroom
    • New SAVE database
    • New Eectronic Photo database
    • Editorial Network Databases
    • CCI Pagination
  • Restructure of the Advertising Division
  • Restructure of the Newsroom
    • Moved from dumb terminals to PCs
  • Restructure of Circulation

Where We Are Now

  • Search for new Information Manager
  • Optimizing the way both halves of the Department work together
  • Proprietary Databases (mastery & maintenance)
  • Rebuiding reationships with Editorial
  • Getting the Research message out to other Departments

10 Reasons you need to Investigate

  • Many companies, especially newspapers are restructuring
  • Important to "get on the bacony" if you want to see what's happening.
  • Important to understanding a information needs in company
  • Specialized resources/databases access.
  • Potential Higher Profile for Library
  • Important to know how the other haf thinks
  • There are some great peope/allies you may be missing
  • You have research and database skis that others in the company need.
  • While there is good reason for the church & state separation in newspapers,
    libraries can be a bridge for information flow.
  • If you don't do it; it may be done to you
Gary Lance
Library Manager
San Jose Mercury News


1997 News Divison Program
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