Project management in your newsroom

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Comment by Sascha Raiyn on January 5, 2009 at 3:54pm

Does anyone know of a newsroom successfully using MS Project? It seems the intention at least is to integrate it with the entire Office suite. The question is whether that makes it a powerful project management tool for newsrooms or a complicated mess.

Comment by Zac Echola on December 17, 2008 at 7:37pm

I know you're specifically talking about collaborative, one-time projects, but I've suggested Google Docs for daily budgeting as the shared environment solves many of the issues brought upon by the expensive front-end system used in some of our newsrooms, which only allows one editor in a document at a time and no remote access, among other annoyances.

Docs has it's own problems because it exists separately from the front end system itself. As a result it adds another layer to an already cumbersome workflow.

It's not necessarily a problem with Google Docs. The editors loved it. But the current system manages entire workflow from calendars, reporter budgets, daily budgets to production and even shoveling to the Web (to some extent, we've tried to shy away from that as much as possible because it's hideous).

You bring up an excellent point about multiple mediums. One of the TV stations in my market has a newscast stacking program that integrates perfectly with nearly every aspect of the broadcast, but the workflow for posting to the Web is to simply copy/paste.

I have yet to see a front end system that gracefully bridges the gaps between multiple media. Ellington comes closest. However, trying to be too many things at once becomes overly burdensome.