The newsroom restructuring comes as USAT considers how best to make money across platforms. For instance, by the end of this quarter, Gannett execs and USAT are expect to decide whether to charge for its ad-supported iPad app.

As part of the initial newsroom reforms, USAT is doing away with separate managing editors in charge of the News, Sports, Money and Life sections. Instead, the newsroom will be divided into 13 “content rings,” which will include Your Life, Travel, Breaking News, Investigative, Washington/Economy, Tech, and Auto among others. Sports will operate as a separate business under Ross Schaufelberger, a former CEO of BNQT Media Group, although it’s not clear how that will work on the editorial side.

USA Today vet Susan Weiss, currently editor of the Life section, will head up the overall content group as executive editor of content, reporting to USAT Editor John Hillkirk. Chet Czarniak, a former sports reporter for the paper who joined USAToday.com in 1999, will be executive editor of content distribution and programming for print, online and mobile news and information platforms.

Part of Weiss’ role will be to closely work with VP of business development, Rudd Davis, who arrived at USAT over two years ago when it bought action sports content company Banquet. While this doesn’t necessarily mean a complete demolition of the “Chinese Wall” that traditionally exists at established news organizations, it certainly sounds like it will be little more than a nylon curtain. Even for a periodical that was once derided as “McPaper,” this particular alteration is likely to raise eyebrows.

The turn towards more mobile-friendly content will be managed by Steve Kurtz, VP of digital distribution and previously director of digital information technology at USAToday.com.

Even though Gannett has been profitable this year and has seen the publishing revenue declines start to slow, much of its success has resulted from sharp cost cutting. Among its dozens of newspaper properties, USAT’s problems have been unique. The paper has always relied heavily on the travel industry. But the weakness in travel has continued to plague USAT. While the automotive, retail and packaged goods categories began spending more on the newspaper in Q2, it just wasn’t enough offset the travel declines. As a result, paid ad pages in USAT totaled 580 compared with 602 in last year’s second quarter.

On the digital side of USAT, the website got its second redesign in less than three years back in January. The redesign’s emphasis was more ad-friendly, offering 14 ad various formats for advertisers to choose from, in the hopes of attracting bigger spending brand marketers. That was just after Gannett ordered 37 layoffs at the USAT newspaper and weekend magazine.

In addition to reflecting the challenges in generating ad revenue, the changes at USAT come nearly a year after the paper was knocked off its perch as the number one daily in paid circ by the WSJ.