"That's a giant step for this organization, given the rich histories of both papers," Wischnowski said. "However, at a time when we're trying to maximize every one of our resources and cover the community in a very strong print and digital way, all three editors have decided that this is the best way to serve our readership."
In a series of meetings with the staffs Thursday, Wischnowski, Daily News editor Larry Platt, and Philly.com editor Wendy Warren outlined their concept of how certain newsroom functions would be combined.
Some writers, such as columnists, editorial writers, and investigative-reporting teams, would remain separate, enabling the papers to retain their distinctive voices, Wischnowski said. In addition, staffing would be adjusted to provide 24-hour, seven-day-a-week breaking-news coverage.
Under the plan, some elements of sports coverage, arts and other features stories, city and suburban reporting, and various editing functions would be coordinated and shared, Wischnowski said. The same story might appear in both newspapers.
For example, the papers' sports departments intend to have one editor in charge of reporters from both staffs covering the Phillies, another for those covering the Eagles, and so on. Two reporters might still cover a Phillies game. However, one might be "digitally focused," Wischnowski said, posting news and video interviews to the Web, while the other might concentrate on a story for print.
The goal is to reduce duplication and encourage more enterprise and investigative reporting, which the editors believe differentiate the papers.
