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Wichita Eagle editor to discuss 'digital first' during ASNE chat

Date: Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011 at noon ET/ 9 PT

Hosts: Melanie Sill, USC Annenberg, and Carole Tarrant, The Roanoke (Va.) Times

Guest: Wichita Eagle editor Sherry Chisenhall

Chisenhall and her team spent awhile looking for a template to reshape their print newsroom workflow to create a better online and mobile news report, but never found one. What they realized, Chisenhall said, is that each newsroom has to identify priorities and goals and build the right structure to carry out those goals. At the Eagle, 50 of a total of 60 newsroom jobs changed with the new structure, launched a couple of months ago. The old night copy desk schedule was replaced by staggered shifts starting at 6 a.m. A deputy editor for digital supervises reporting teams. Editors have been trained in SEO. And Chisenhall, who has juggled roles including acting publisher as the Eagle experienced layoffs and other challenges, says they're still learning.

Join #ASNEChat Tuesday at Noon Eastern/ 9 Pacific and bring your own "digital first" ideas and experiences.

Chisenhall has been editor and vice president/news of the Eagle since 2004, and was managing editor for four years before that. She previously worked at The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina for 14 years in various positions as an editor, reporter, copy editor and page designer, and at the Biloxi, Miss., Sun Herald. She is a native of south-central Illinois and has a B.S. in journalism and political science from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Chisenhall led the plan's development at the Knight-McCormick Leadership Institute at Knight Digital Media Center. Read more about the reorganization at the Knight Digital Media Center blog.

More information available here.

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