"The goal in combining the two newsrooms is to create a single 24-hour news organization that will inform and engage readers on multiple platforms," USA Today Editor Ken Paulson said in a statement announcing the move. "That means going beyond arm's-length collaboration. Starting today our goal is to begin conceiving and planning our coverage as one unit, thinking more strategically about the deployment of our newsgathering resources in a world in which news has become an on-demand commodity."

Spokesman Steve Anderson said the move does not increase or decrease staffing, but it does realign the management structure for more of a streamlined process.