Covering content using fluid beat structures

The rapid evolution in newsmedia provides a lot of ideas for better content strategies in a less organisational, more networked society. One such concept is ideas-based, or fluid, beats for journalism: "... a way for reporters to be human-centric rather than newsroom- or bureaucracy-centric", according to the latest piece in Niemanlab's Journalism in 2014 series. "Creating a fluid beat structure doesn’t mean you’re ignoring influential bureaucracies. It just means you’re rethinking the flow of information in a way that reflects new behaviors. Today we navigate linked networks of continuous news and information rather than diving into and out of closed systems.... Imagine a news organization where reporters have beats like longevity, the changing oceans, preservation, the future, global borders, worst-case scenarios etc.... This new structure better lends itself to high-impact reporting. A reporter who covers “transparency” instead of just “media” or just “campaign finance,” for example, is poised to find connections and patterns that exist in the world but otherwise aren’t typically reported — or even identified. That reporter is then well positioned to be a trusted guide on any number of stories related to transparency issues." Right now, the EC is broken down into DGs, which are themselves broken into Directorates, and then Units. While there is a 'Communication' DG, each DG does its own comms too. And while there is a 'Comms Unit' in each DG, many Directorates, and even individual Units, do their own comms to. The resulting organigramme-driven cacophony amounts to less than the sum of the parts. A more fluid, topic-focused approach would help.