The online news budget meeting

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We started something new this week at The Anniston Star. I began attending the newsroom's morning budget meeting.

In the past, this meeting has been used to plan out the print product for the day. This week we changed a great deal of the focus to planning out the day on the home page of www.annistonstar.com. We are now using this meeting every day to have a team plan out the daily direction of the site instead of winging it or having one or two people make these decisions.

These type of meetings can be very short and still be quite useful. It has helped the online staff to know what new stories we are likely to have during the day. On days when there isn't breaking news of note, we can also pick possibly overlooked content to be featured on the site.

As we move forward with a new content management system that will be easier for newsoom employees to use, these meetings will be even more important.

We had very brief early morning meetings like this when I was at al.com. They really helped everyone get on the same page with the direction of the site.

So, if the website is not part of your newsroom's morning routine, start now.