Tennessean senior editor Deborah Fisher used many of Gannett’s current buzzwords–such as microzones, pro-am and user-generated content–in her presentation to PRSA Nashville on Tuesday. It should be noted that others are taking note of Gannett’s approach to using the Web to adapt and sustain its core newspaper business. Business Week writer Jon Fine had the following to say this week about the company’s innovations:

[T]he newspaper chain with the most interesting and coherent approach to rethinking journalism and news-gathering is not the New York Times Co. or the Washington Post Co. …

By May 1 Gannett will have rolled out to all its papers initiatives enabling readers to interact with each other and assist its journalists. (These approaches also will be launched at Gannett’s TV stations.) To describe these efforts, Michael Maness, vice-president of strategic planning and one of the strategy’s architects, is eschewing such clumsy industry terms as “user-generated content,” opting instead for the more euphonious “pro-am” (as in, professional-amateur) to underscore the blend of reader contributions and traditional reporting. If this succeeds—and early indicators are good—an unlikely company will lead the industry down an unfamiliar but promising path. “What I like about it is that it’s not just about saving money, it’s about saving journalism,” says a reliably revved-up Jeff Jarvis, proprietor of media blog buzzmachine.com.

Some of what Gannett stresses is the kind of Web 101 that local newspapers should have been doing all along. It will ramp up news-breaking efforts on the Web and rethink the product to deliver whatever to whomever on whichever platforms they desire—a phrase so hideously clichéd that most media observers can recite it robotically. Where things get really interesting, and where Gannett leapfrogs others’ efforts, is in its pro-am blend. “The pros do the heavy lifting and build the framework and structure,” says Maness. “And the audience can come in and fill in” around it.

The whole article is worth a read. If you make it over there, don’t miss the comments, where most readers don’t share Fine’s optimistic take on Gannett’s decision. Here’s a sampling:

Nickname: drew216

Review: Our small group of newspapers has been accepting and encouraging “citizen journalism” since mid last year. I guess I am surprised that Gannett took so long to figure this out! Citizen Journalism is low cost cpm that is a fantastic opportunity for all newspapers, large and small. We are now able to re-capture the lost franchise of breaking news and leverage it even further. We can create a greater sense of community in our individual markets by involving our readers. Their “content” makes our products/stories more compelling for our customers! I am surprised by the comments by people who simply do not see this huge opportunity. Time to descend from your ivory tower!

Date reviewed: Feb 28, 2007 9:25 PM

Nickname: GannettInsider

Review: Gannett’s new initiative, the Information Center, is all about creating more bureaucracy to feed the beast, or the reading audience. They don’t care what the quality of journalism is, hell, they don’t even hire reporters as they leave, but they’re hunting for someone to fill silly-sounding new positions such as the Data Desk Editor and Community Conversations Editor. It’s just more of the same with Gannett.

Date reviewed: Feb 20, 2007 1:48 AM

Nickname: newsdude

Review: What you don’t know about Gannett’s plan: Reporters will be selling news subscriptions and answering delivery complaints while “covering” their communities. That reporters are handing out business cards that solicit reader-submitted photos of dogs and quilts and such to post as “news.” That public officials and untrained bloggers are being allowed to post unedited “news” items as daily Web updates. That real reporters’ jobs are being cut in favor of Webbies who post this drivel. Ask Fort Myers all about it — it was all discussed in a company-wide conference call last fall, and is being practiced as we speak. If that’s civic journalism, we’re all in trouble.

Date reviewed: Feb 19, 2007 7:54 PM

Nickname: posted

Review: Someone has had a sip of the Kool-aid. Gannett does nothing that does not mean the reduction of FTEs (can’t even refer to them as people as what is left of their conscience might have a problem with what they do to people’s lives.) This time the genius is to supplant paid journalists with unpaid readers. Perhaps the next initiative will be to have businesses sell their ads to themselves or readers deliver their own papers.

Date reviewed: Feb 19, 2007 12:47 PM

Hat tip to Mike P. for pointing me to this article. Thanks, Mike.

An audience member at Tuesday’s PRSA meeting asked Tennessean senior editor Deborah Fisher about how the paper’s reporters are responding to all of the changes taking place in print and online. With reporters being asked to post breaking news stories during the day and post blog entries and the paper preparing to shift to an around-the-clock news room and begin training some of its reporters to record video as well as write articles, the workload is changing and increasing quickly for a staff that Fisher acknowledged is not making any major increases to its staff. She also shared her perceptions of how the newsroom is adjusting to what she described as a “somewhat chaotic” process of publishing news both online and in print:

“I don’t know that we have gotten a lot of negative responses [from veteran reporters on staff]… When they begin receiving comments and story leads, they see the power of posting online. It helps eliminate the restrictions of the print cycle…

“In terms of breaking news, reporters realize that [online story posting] doesn’t take a whole lot away from print reporting. It’s also like writing a draft where reporters can crystallize their thoughts. One of the places where we do struggle with online updates is when the reporter is still working a story and needs time to keep following leads and make phone calls to investigate tips. It’s more of a distraction than a time issue.”

Another attendee asked Fisher about perceptions that few of the paper’s reporters either grew up in the city or have a thorough understanding of the local community. Fisher responded:

“Deep community knowledge is really important. We have a lot of staff who have been there a long time. In any market, you’re going to have people come in and come out. The Tennessean, in contrast to other papers I’ve been at, has a large amount of people who have been here a long time…Reporters can come in to a situation and learn the lay of the land. We do a lot to help them know who’s who in the community.”

The Nashville Scene and others have made an issue in recent years of reporting about increasing frustrations in the newsroom, departures of long-term reporters and a loss of this kind of community knowledge on the paper’s staff. It can safely be said, I think, that modern journalism looks very different than it did 10 or 15 years ago, and that the skills required and demands made on reporters are as intense and as varied now perhaps as they have ever been. From what I have witnessed in print and online, it seems that the evolution of The Tennessean is definitely a work-in-progress, but I am hoping that its increasing focus on breaking local news and frequent online updates will ultimately lead to a stronger and more relevant newspaper.

Tennessean Senior Editor Deborah Fisher mentioned during her presentation to the Nashville PRSA chapter yesterday that the paper plans to operate a “24/7 newsroom” within six months that will publish local updates to its Web site around the clock.

Currently, the paper publishes about 100 breaking news updates each day beginning at 6 a.m. Fisher’s goal is for the site to be “dynamic and refreshing constantly.” “Update, update, update is our mantra,” she said.

I’m glad to see this move by the paper. As a media junkie, I say the more news, the better, and it’s always encouraging to see additional local content arriving online.

Senior editor Deborah Fisher mentioned today during her presentation to the local PRSA chapter that The Tennessean will launch a redesigned business section sometime in March. The section will feature more local content and include regular features such as “How I solved it” for business challenges, “How I started it” for new businesses, more columns by local business people and an increased focus on entrepreneurs.

Alongside this new content, the paper will include “real, practical information” such as tax deadlines and an expanded calendar page with an emphasis on networking events and opportunitities because, as Fisher noted, “Nashville is a heavy networking city.”

The section will feature a different “niche” page each day with reporting on the following areas: development, Music Row, real estate, automotive, health care and small business. People in Business, the paper’s current weekly business announcements section, will appear on a daily basis corresponding to the day’s niche page. Movers and Shakers, which Fisher mentioned as a popular item, will remain on the section’s front page.

Fisher hopes that the section will reveal more of the “flavor of Nashville.” In my opinion, this is good news for a section that frequently has more stock listings than editorial content. It will hopefully provide increased information about the local business community.

Tennessean senior editor Deborah Fisher spoke to the Nashville chapter of the Public Relations Society of America today and addressed the current and future direction of the newspaper. Fisher became senior editor this past December and has been heavily involved in the recent content changes in the print edition and the paper’s significant embrace of its Web site and social media in the past several months.

While The Tennessean isn’t announcing any major personnel changes or abrupt shifts in its focus, this presentation came in the wake of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s February 21 announcement that it will shift its content for younger readers to the Web and focus its print edition on an older audience. Fisher explained The Tennessean’s reasoning behind its changes in content strategy:

“The Tennessean wanted to restructure because the way people get information has changed so much… It’s not just the paper reaching people any more … So many people have moved online. Many use PCs or PDAs to get breaking news online during the day. Our goal is to provide news when they want it and how they want it.”

Fisher acknolwedged the organization’s concerns about recent downsizing and acquisition trends in the industry and specifically mentioned the AJC’s unexpected announcement. As the Poynter Institute’s Rick Edmonds recently said about the Atlanta announcement, The Tennessean is yet another paper trying “to find the magic balance between print and online.”

While The Tennessean is not abandoning its print edition or altering it on the drastic level that the AJC is proposing, Fisher acknowledged that the paper’s print circulation is declining, as it is for nearly all papers across the country, and that online page viewing is booming: “The web is definitely seeing a double-digit increase. It’s huge. There has been a phenomenal growth in page views and unique visitors. There’s a whole set of metrics that we look at.”

In discussing strategy, Fisher returned consistently to variations on the following talking points, including references to “getting information to people in different ways” and “continuing the conversation.” These phrases and the messaging below echo the mission and values of The Tennessean’s parent company Gannett:

“Everything in the world of journalism eventually comes down to the reporter. Good journalism really does start with the reporter, and it comes down to the reporter’s passion for his or her beat. That passion ends up leading to a good story.”

When asked, Fisher said that she did not foresee a time when the newspaper would abandon its print edition:

“As long as people want to consume information in different ways, I think there will always be a print product. There are some limitations to the Web. Newspapers will go away when books go away. I think there will be a print edition for a long time. We will have to continue editing it for what people expect. I don’t think the print edition will entirely go away.”

I will share more details from Fisher’s presentation today later this afternoon.