Lecture 2 How to Create Systems to Keep Staff on Track? - Recap

SYSTEMS TO KEEP NEWS STAFF ON TRACK



With newspapers being buffeted these days by endless change, it is more crucial than ever for employees to be goal oriented, and pulling hard in a single direction.

But obviously it is not possible to get everyone efficiently aligned without implementing strategies and procedures to ensure all moving parts within an organization are doing exactly what they are supposed to.

Anyone who seriously considers all that a newspaper organization achieves, on a daily basis – through the coordinated efforts of a handful, or dozens, or hundreds of people, all doing myriad tasks, in a bunch of different departments — realizes that exactly the right procedures must be in place to carry off what truly is an extraordinary feat.

And consider, in recent times, newspapers, not only must continue to function as newsprint creatures, they must evolve their systems to serve a highly competitive online community as well — on their own websites, on tablets, on mobile devices.

And newspapers have had to do this, and more, with fewer resources and a dwindling staff roster.

And who makes all this work properly? Well, the folks at the very top are the ones assigned to set up the strategies and procedures that grease all the whirring wheels.

As reporters are busy researching and writing, and editors editing, and sales staff selling, it is the newspaper manager – be it the publisher, editor-in-chief or managing editor – who must wave a baton and ensure the orchestra is making music that is beautiful. With as few sour notes as possible.

Veteran journalist Patricia Graham was editor-in-chief at The Vancouver Sun from 2003 to 2011 and says she mainly learned on the job how to develop the newspaper systems that helped keep everyone playing in tune.

Graham, who subsequently held the role of Vice President, Digital at Pacific Press until 2013, outlined some of the strategies she deployed and spoke about the importance of alignment.

“To be effective at change, your staff has to understand the challenges you are coping with, why you are doing the things you are doing, why change is necessary and what the benefits are. Everyone has to understand, and get behind it.”

She says the challenges for the newspaper business now are so great that “it has to be a team effort.”

Once any strategy is established, the next step involves putting in place processes directed at achieving strategic goals and measuring progress along the way.

These processes include communication and alignment, training to keep pace with digital advances and the organization and reorganization of staff responsibilities – which needs to happen more frequently than in the past.

Managers also must keep in mind technological considerations. “Technology has become very important and tech change is very expensive. You have to be thinking about your technology systems, keeping them affordable and adaptable.”

Systems always must be set up to measure progress, such as performance-review evaluations and associated “check-ins.” At the Sun, such meetings, for each staff member, were carried out at least once a year, as part of keeping people engaged and the newsroom aligned.

“If there is no formalized assessment in place, people can drift in a way that is not good for them or for the organization. And goals change over time.”

Performance review and goal setting applied to everyone, including the editor-in-chief herself. “I set goals each year, things I needed to achieve as part of my job, with performance indicators.

“I would set goals with the people who directly reported to me, and their goals would flow from my goals, and this has to apply all the way down the line.”

If, for example, the goal was to increase a newspaper’s digital audience, measurement indicators were adopted for each person in the newsroom working toward that goal.

If training was required, then that training has to be measured for its effectiveness.

As at most newspapers, along the way The Vancouver Sun decided to set a goal of growing its online readership which, in turn, prompted a wholesale review, and subsequent rejigging, of staff roles. “If 90 per cent of the newsroom staff was made up of writers and copy writers and 10 per cent were working online, you might not have the right ratio to improve your online audience.”

Workflow systems must follow a newspaper’s goals. At the Sun, before the digital newspaper revolution, morning and afternoon planning meetings were devoted to deciding what would be on a front page the following day. Of course, that inevitably switched to a focus on materials for the online website.

The print part of the paper, observed Graham, “is insatiable, has to be fed every day, it sucks so much attention and resources into it by virtue of being a blank canvas that has to be filled.”

Graham says, the digital era revolutionized the way those working online had to think. “Print readers generally have less of an appetite than digital for sensational news. People who are active online are reading at different times of the day, so do you have enough people working at peak periods, when the audience is there?”

Graham believes, in the current climate, “You cannot over communicate. You have to give people enough information so they can buy in to what you are asking of them, and you need to communicate successes and express gratitude when there are successes. That’s very important.”

To be sure, right now the mood in too many newsrooms tends to be somber. Unless editors and managers address the happiness deficit, an organization can lose motivation and energy.

This can be especially challenging when a newsroom staff roster is being continually trimmed and revenues are dropping. The decline in resources, of course, leads to a reduced capacity to finance the training employees need to keep up with digital developments.

Today, every reporter needs to know about digital techniques like SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and how to use them. And, with reporters being asked to take photos and prepare videos, they need the appropriate training.

Graham’s emphasis on setting up systems to allow for full communication included the Sun’s advertising and marketing departments so that both these arms of the newspaper were kept abreast of big news stories and any projects being planned.

“Newspapers cannot operate as silos any more. The need for revenue is so significant, we won’t have a newspaper [if lines of communication are not wide open].

“Of course, the advertising department cannot be mucking around with editorial content. But there’s no reason advertising and editorial cannot meet to discuss content that has potential for both.

“If a series is being planned in the newsroom, why wouldn’t you let advertising know, so that advertising staff can find some [related] advertising at the time the series is running?”

Likewise, “marketing staff cannot market effectively if they do not know what the newsroom is doing.”

With just a day’s notice of a big news story, the Sun’s marketing department often was able to arrange for banners on newspaper boxes. And, with sufficient notice of an upcoming project, they could buy radio time or do some social media marketing.

Another set of procedures that is highly relevant is a Code of Ethics. Graham says, if a newspaper has not established its own code, it can adapt one from the Canadian Association of Journalists. http://caj.ca/content.php?page=ethics-guidelines

To enhance its accountability, a newspaper may wish to be associated with a press council.

Employees need to be trained on both ethics and legal matters, “which can save money in the long run”.

Newsrooms also require workflow systems. Editors will have to choose the software that gets content online, such as DTI or Saxotech.

And current trends are requiring establishment of systems for outsourcing. Chains that operate more than one newspaper frequently centralize many of their operations to cut costs.

In the development of systems that keep any newsroom operation functioning optimally, alas, there is no long-established manual to work from.

Newspaper operations and the communities they serve are all so different that, in most instances, systems must be tailor made to the needs of each organization.

To Recap:

• The establishing of formal procedures, or systems, has become essential in running a newspaper today, allowing an organization to grapple with the rapid pace of change that is upon it;
• Systems supporting communication between the editorial department and the marketing and advertising arms of the newspaper, once viewed with suspicion, are now considered highly useful;
• Every system that is established must be accompanied by tools that can measure its effectiveness in achieving the goal at hand;
• Because it is so important to achieve buy-in from all involved, managers must be diligent communicators. In tough times, they should not neglect expressions of gratitude to staff. Holding up examples for praise is useful in countering a negative mood that pervades too many newsroom.
• With reporters being asked to do more and more to keep up with the demands of online platforms, it is a manager’s task to seek out affordable options for teaching relevant skills to staff.