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One of the things I enjoy doing — and don’t do nearly enough — is speaking to groups of people about how we do our jobs at IBJ and in journalism generally and answering questions about dealing with the media.
First, it’s just great to get out of the office more and talk to people who are doing business, conducting government or serving people throughout central Indiana. It’s way too easy to get caught up in how busy I am and forget that what matters is learning more about how you all do what you do!
But part of that is explaining what we do inside the walls of IBJ Media, as well. I know it can feel like a black box, especially when we’re making the kinds of changes that have been underway since the beginning of the year.
The Indiana Lawyer is now a supplement to the IBJ. But what does that mean in terms of our structure, in terms of how we tell stories and how you tell us your stories? We hope the latter will be easier and the former will be better.
We’ve long thought of IBJ, The Indiana Lawyer and the non-TV part of Inside INdiana Business as part of the same newsroom. But The Lawyer had a different editing team, and while we communicated throughout the day, we weren’t working together as well as I hope we will now.
Today, The Lawyer reporters — the talented Maura Johnson and Cameron Shaw — report to the same editing team that IBJ reporters do. Some editors are more focused on The Lawyer or more focused on IBJ and Inside INdiana Business. But these leaders sit together in a sort of pod in the newsroom where they can overhear what others are doing or directing or struggling with.
As a result, we hope to make more coordinated decisions about what to cover, when and how. And for our team — and we hope, for our readers — one of the best outcomes of this change is that a subscription to one of our news brands is a subscription to all.
We still have three websites — one each for The Lawyer, IBJ and Inside INdiana Business. We don’t have any plans right now to change that. But your subscription log-in for one site is your log-in for the others.
That makes it easier in newsletters and from within stories to direct subscribers to the coverage that’s most relevant in any given situation without hitting a paywall. For readers, it’s easiest in the IBJ Media app, where you can see stories from all three brands in one place.
We hope it’s also easier for you to talk to us. Rather than trying to guess which of our sites is the best place for the news you want to share, you can get all the editors making decisions about all the stories in one place. We recommend you send us news using the email [email protected], which goes to a team of editors that are involved with all three websites and our two print publications.
TV production remains a separate division within IBJ Media, though the leaders of both areas talk regularly and share information daily. Send ideas for the team that produces the “Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick” television show to [email protected].
We look forward to hearing from you not only about your story ideas but with other suggestions, concerns and complaints about what we’re doing. We want to know what’s on your mind.•
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Weidenbener is editor and assistant publisher of IBJ and The Indiana Lawyer. Reach her at [email protected].
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