Back on the we media train for a day or so there are a couple of thoughts left from the Mid-American Press Institute workshop that are good to include here.

There was a lot of talk among newsroom mangers at the workshop, and even here at The Gazette, about what are priorities since more is being asked of traditional reporters and editors to feed the web, mobile and digital media realm.

The question wasn’t phrased this way at the conference, but here people often ask: What do you want me to give up?

For journalists, that is a hard question to answer because traditional they don’t want to give up anything. I say, let the audience decide. Or at the very least, include them in the conversation.

To help answer that question there were three specific ideas that came from the workshop that may be applicable.

Create a web-first task force in the newsroom

In Memphis, for example, managing editor Scott Sines asked for volunteers to be on this task force. He ended up with 28, too many for one team. So he assigned one team to look at how the will cover events with a web-first mentality. He assigned another to look at processes, training, mindset, structure and new skill sets.

Go out into the public, tell them what you’re doing and solicit their feedback

Get your newsroom leaders out into the community. There are several neighborhood, chamber, Rotary, business – all kinds of meetings that would love to hear what the local paper is doing. Listen to them. Give them a way to give you feedback. Use that information in making decisions on what beats get priorities and where coverage may be focused. Again, listen to your audience, and remember we as journalist stuck in the Ivory Tower aren’t always right.

Restructure the way you hire freelancers

Here is another example from Sines. He increased his budget to pay for freelancers. He created a freelance editor who interviewed and hired them. And he didn’t just hire freelancers to cover the fringe area. He hired them to cover Memphis, often working nights and weekends. But those freelancers were, in essence, nine new reporters added to the staff. Wow.