Tronc Centralizes Newspaper Design And Production

Tronc president Tim Knight has announced in a memo to staff that the company is reorganizing its eight local newsrooms to push its digital transition efforts.

MediaPost reports Knight said the first step of this process is Tronc’s rollout onto the Arc publishing platform. Tronc’s local newsrooms will be “flatter,” with fewer job titles across the company and "a higher reporter-to-editor ratio.”

All of Tronc’s print newspapers will be designed and produced out of its new central business unit headquartered in Chicago, called the Design and Production Studio, or DPS. “Despite changes made over the last decade to become more digitally focused, our newsrooms are still tied to the demands of the daily print newspaper production cycle,” Knight wrote. DPS will help “hasten [newsrooms'] digital efforts.”

Timothy Knight

In the three-page memo, Knight wrote: “To thrive as the digital leader in our markets, we recognize that our local newsrooms must reward their high performers, hire new talent and train their journalists to excel at existing and emerging digital platforms. We also need to provide the newsrooms with the tools they need to better engage their readers.

Local newsrooms will continue to decide what goes on Page One and in local coverage. Tronc newsrooms will hire new talent and review salaries for all editorial employees over the next six weeks, with opportunities to give raises to staff.

Tronc owns the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Orlando Sentinel, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Daily Press of Newport News, Va.and The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa.

The Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union Tribune were sold recently to billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong for $500 million.