Ombudsman Blog: Post online strategy: Grow audience, and engagement

"In the [Washington] Post's case, the intense pressure to boost online traffic and engagement has revealed, as my Sunday column noted, a newsroom divide between Web and print-oriented staffers. Some with an online focus believe that print veterans are too wedded to traditional journalistic standards and are too slow to embrace the more freewheeling Web. But print-oriented staffers fear that using gimmicks to attract online audience will cheapen The Post’s brand, thus damaging its journalistic reputation. When I suggested last week that there’s a disconnect in the newsroom, Post online executive producer Katharine Zaleski said that it’s more of a “lack of awareness” on the part of some print veterans."

psmith, journalist: Sorry, but the monopoly is over: regional newspapers need digital innovation

Patrick Smith describes the "conspiracy theory" many journalists favour : "that newspapers would be profitable if the owners would only 'invest in quality'. This theory holds that since newspapers once were hugely profitable (not necessarily true…) they could be again if the pagination, staffing and multiple editions came back the way they were. ... [But] This is not about the quality of journalism – this is about economics."