Alan Formby-Jackson

So the paper renowned for its conservative politics is about to take the most revolutionary step in its history, more sweeping than the initial introduction of computer technology, more radical than its creation of the first newspaper website (in 1994) and more journalistically challenging than any initiative yet pioneered by any other British newspaper.

Guardian blogger Roy Greenslade had the chance to wander around the new Daily Telegraph offices in Victoria, London, where the broadsheet paper is preparing itself to go all multimedia. Yes it looks like something from a Kubrick movie, but hey at least they’re doing something positive about the future of their product. 

Read it here, it’s worth it.

To meet the needs of this new journalism the Telegraph is setting up a new-style editorial floor, based on a “hub and spoke” layout. At the centre is a round table and radiating from it are a series of desks covering every department. The editors sit at the hub-end, enabling them to talk to each other throughout the day, and their staffs sit along the spines of the spokes. Doubtless the editors will be dubbed the “knight-editors of the round table” as they meet in the open for the day’s four main conferences, ending the practice of meetings in rooms. Indeed, there are few rooms anyway. The 67,000 sq ft floor will be entirely open plan - making it, supposedly, London’s largest - and the editors of each title are the only ones to have private offices that are merely glass boxes. Aside from other glassed-off areas for making video and audio material, the whole staff will work together.

But I was surprised when I discovered that, across the two Telegraph titles there are 167 sub-editors. There will still be vitally important work for subs, but fewer will be required in the new “cluster” arrangements for producing multi-media output, and I think their status will be enhanced too. It is sobering to learn, even after the passing of hot metal printing 20 years ago, that many articles currently pass through 12 pairs of hands before reaching the reader. That is obviously unnecessary and a key reason for job losses.

The Telegraph’s website is here.

The Press Gazette website also has a story where Telegraph editorial managing director Will Lewis takes a swipe at the Guardian’s G24 PDF setup.

Lewis claims these interactive element smake Clilck and Carry a superior product compared to the “haphazard” G24 pdf offering from The Guardian.

“It’s a disgrace and they should be ashamed of it.” Lewis added that project “byte” is the opposite to the “two worlds” approach of The Guardian. “There’ll be no old media versus new media, them and us — instead there’ll be an unheard-of training programme.” Every member of The Telegraph’s journalism staff who makes the move to the Victoria offices will get an intensive five-day training course in the new systems, including audio and video production.

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