Newsrooms have not been immune to management trends. Particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, newsroom managers have been willing to experiment with new, more efficient methods to run their operations, meet economic goals and handle technological changes. The topic team system is one of these methods. But although the team system has been the subject of numerous descriptive articles in the trade press, not much analytical work has been done.(1) This study examines the effects of the newsroom topic team system on journalists' perceptions of their participation in problem-solving and decision-making processes - in brief, are the empowerment objectives of the team system being met? The study is based on census survey of two newsrooms (n=244) that implemented topics teams in the mid-1990s. The Star Tribune (Minneapolis) and the St. Paul Pioneer Press are published in different cities, but see themselves as competitors in the Twin Cities marketplace. Background Newsroom topic teams, also called pods, clusters, and other names, are one recent method used by media managers to restructure the newsroom. Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith define topic team (also called pods, clusters and other names)(2) as a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.(3) Teams are supposed to bring together complementary skills and experiences that, by definition, exceed those of any individual on the team.(4) In newsrooms, teams usually are organized by content areas - public safety, urban problems and leisure time, for example - that often cut across traditional job descriptions and newsroom departments. In more traditional newsroom, executive-level editors supervise section editors (like sports or features), who in turn are in charge of copy editors and reporters assigned to beats, like the local baseball team or medical news. The traditional newsroom operates with hierarchical system. Teams are considered less hierarchic than the old ways, and often the structure is changed so that layers of newsroom management are reduced. For example, at the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, seven levels of newsroom :management were made into three.(5) In Tacoma, Washington, four management levels were shrunk to two.(6) An element of leadership remains, said publisher Scott Campbell of The Columbian, of Vancouver, Washington. Democracy is not we're after. There is still role for top management to make decisions when it is appropriate.(7) In team system, typical team consists of one or two team leaders, several reporters, copy editors, copy aides, and, often, photographer and graphic artist. The team leader is considered less of an editor and more of coach or facilitator. A unit with the title of urban problems team may have elements of jobs held by the former police, juvenile justice and city hall beats. In many cases, terminology like city desk and state desk has been tossed out, and, indeed, reporters often do not work for the specific sections of the newspaper any longer. In some newsrooms, the general copy desk has been broken into many pieces, and each piece fit into team. More cooperation among team members is usually one goal of the reorganization, particularly between the visual and written team members. Teams are supposed to add up to more than the sum of their parts. In some cases, as in Vancouver and other places, walls were torn down and the newsroom was remodeled to aid communication and serve as physical reminder of the new management structure. of the intentions of the new system is to empower employees.(8) The team design is what it means to empower people, said John P. McDonagh, vice president of marketing and advertising at The Columbian. One of the main principles is involving people who do the work. Get employee representatives in room, describe our situation, we want it to be and ways we might get there. …