Thinking a lot about newsroom work flow recently, mostly in connection with this reorganization think tank project going on at my paper, I just wanted to map out the most basic of work flow models. It’s nothing new, but it seems like every conversation about newsroom operation would be easier if we all had our basics straight.

For example, everyone always talks like the internet makes things so much more confusing. It’s really the exact same flow, just with different tasks at the Producer step. The roles here are the basic archetypes, the essential components of getting news content to the public. Each role is not necessarily designated to one person, as the Position example illustrates. Five or six different people may be involved in the editor role for a single piece of content; conversely, a single person could fill all the roles, like when I publish something journalism-like here on my blog.

This chart is hardly comprehensive. It doesn’t even indicate deadlines, let alone all the decisions and routines established in a newsroom work flow. The point is to get everyone thinking in the same framework to further discussion about how newsrooms can be more efficient and integrate multiple platforms.