With the launch of Sun TV News and the addition of Winnipeg-based national broadcaster Charles Adler, the Winnipeg Sun is revamping its newsroom to make way for the new TV studio.
In an internal e-mail to reporters and photographers — and obtained by ChrisD.ca — Editor-in-Chief Stephen Ripley outlines numerous plans for how staff will be working when the studio comes to fruition.
“With the imminent arrival of Sun TV news (and to meet our own increasing needs), we will be expected to shoot video at every opportunity,” Ripley said. “This means every story, every presser, every scrum, every face-to-face interview, every photo op. This doesn’t mean the footage will always be cut into a finished video … it just means we’ll have that option and we’ll be able to archive it for future use.”
Dubbed “Sun Media’s editorial transformation project,” the newsroom floorplan will also be redesigned, with the objective of pushing employees out of corners and cubicles.
The news gathering process will also be tweaked, making staff start earlier to identify stories for the following day’s paper and online. “For instance, if we like something in our morning meeting, we might tell a reporter that’s all he/she will be working on, perhaps adding sidebars, graphics, opinion, video and other online-only elements,” the e-mail goes on to say. “We’ll bring photographers into the loop earlier to get them working on a powerful front-page image to sell that day’s splash.”
“We will gladly sacrifice commodity news and back-of-the-section stories in order to have a decent splash each day … something to differentiate us from the competition.”
The Sun says they will continue to focus on areas they believe resonate with its readers, including “crime, wasting of tax dollars, the encroachment of the nanny state, promoting Winnipeg, sticking up for the little guy … and anything fun.”
A Sun insider tells us construction on the studio should begin within the next week or so.
Sun TV News is expected to launch early next year.
