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Newsroom changes

Steve Herrmann Steve Herrmann | 09:50 UK time, Tuesday, 17 June 2008

Readers of this website will not, I hope, have noticed any seismic changes over the past couple of days in the way it looks and behaves.

A graphic of the BBC News websiteBehind the scenes, though, we've been moving all the journalists who work on the main online newsdesk from their traditional home on the 7th floor of BBC TV Centre in west London down to the main newsroom on the 1st and 2nd floors.

So the online news teams have now taken up residence in the newly configured BBC Multimedia Newsroom, next to their TV and radio counterparts, and the newsgathering teams who deploy the BBC's news reporters.

Last meeting on 7th floor for BBC News website team

Empty BBC News website room

The aim is to enable a better focus on telling stories well in video, audio, stills, graphics and text, and getting the right mix of each for any given story on any platform - whether TV, radio, web, mobiles, interactive TV or digital text.

We're not the only news organisation working out how to respond to the rapid changes taking place in technology and the ways audiences look for their news - as others have reported.

And every organisation doubtless faces slightly different challenges as it changes. For us one of these has been the practical difficulty of moving 100 or so journalists and all their equipment from one working newsroom to another whilst simultaneously maintaining a continuous 24-hour online news service.

The first UK News website meeting in multimedia newsroom

The first World News website meeting in multimedia newsroomIt hasn't been that simple to do, so I am rather relieved it has happened. For the journalists working on the website, it feels like a big change, a bit like the start of a new era and a graduation from the online-only newsroom where BBC News Online started in 1997.

Looking ahead, what difference will it make to users of the site? It should mean that you see us becoming an even better showcase for all the best of the BBC's journalism - in video, audio and text; local, national and international.

PS. Here's another change we've made. As of this week, all our blogs will have full RSS feeds, meaning it's much easier to read them in places like Google Reader. My colleague Jem Stone has written more about it on the BBC Internet blog.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    They all look like rejected models from the Marks and Spencers catalogue.

  • Comment number 2.

    Jeff Jarvis wrote an interesting article about this yesterday.

    https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/16/bbc.bbc

  • Comment number 3.

    "Old BBC News website room stands empty"

    The image /staticarchive/339f460c50491f38b7ea0fd36b4e787ff5b18c02.jpg - is 404!

  • Comment number 4.

    Comment 1. A damning, and surprisingly quick, verdict on our sartorial skills. Maybe we'll get smarter now we are sitting alongside TV colleagues. But I doubt it.

    Comment 2. I linked to it above - he makes a good point about the case for further integrating our "ugc" user generated content desk.

    Comment 3. Sorry, fixed.

  • Comment number 5.

    I hope that you all enjoy your new "newsroom"...

    It didn't affect the coverage of the network.

    :)

  • Comment number 6.

    Hi Steve,

    Sorry to hijack this blog slightly, but I noticed there has been a bit more fiddling with the website as well.

    I was wonderong where the "your money" section of the Business bit has gone, that was the only section i used to use, and it seems to have gone the way of the dodo!

    Other than that all I can say is you could have at least used the same furniture throughout your floorplan..... or are the nasty white ones just to differentiate between the bigwigs and the minions ;o)

  • Comment number 7.

    Re: comment 4. What sartorial skills?!

  • Comment number 8.

    revised to my earlier comments:

    the new "newsroom" looks perfect....your have the right to enjoy your accomplishment.

  • Comment number 9.

    well done and keep up the good work. Best of luck in your new abode

  • Comment number 10.

    It is nice to see that internet media is finally getting some respect. It seems as though the BBC has missed a golden opportunity to evolve the workplace into truly forward thinking and earth friendly place. With wireless technology the world can be our workplace. Its seems logical that in a slumping global economy we should be doing everything we can to cut commuting and consumption. It is my opinion that we use technology as an add-on to the old idea of every one being sectioned off into boxes and looking over their shoulder at the other guy in his box. We need to come out our boxes and meet in the streets of the world to solve our global mess before it is too late. Perhaps a true wireless revolution could be a small start in this direction.

  • Comment number 11.

    To S_slatt: It sounds like you have switched to the international edition of our website (see the "site version" button on the left hand side of the page under the section headings) which does not feature the Your Money index, because the stories there are prediominantly UK focused and apply to personal finance issues in the UK. If you select the UK edition, you should have Your Money back, so to speak. In the meantime - here is the direct link.

  • Comment number 12.

    So this is how BBC thinks it will improve its news reporting, by moving from the seventh floor in a building to the first and second. Well it's a start, they're closer to the exit door. BTW, ever hear of the saying "a new broom sweeps clean?" The only way I am going to believe anything I read, see, or hear from BBC is after there is an entire change of personnel right from the top to the bottom. I don't suppose anyone in BBC facilities planning ever heard of....office partitions. But even if they had, there is probably no money in the budget for it. Everything they had was spent sending WHYS entire kit and kaboodle around the world on one junket after another. I wonder how many of them were shopping for new jobs...especially in the US. Did Anna Stewart ever find her way home after her trip to the Pacific coast of America...in Phoenix Arizona? Last I heard was a rumor she'd made a wrong turn trying to find the beach one afternoon after work and was headed in the general direction of Las Vegas.

 

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