December 16, 2010
The News & Record confronts its digital divide
I’ve been a fan of John Robinson, editor of the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C. for a while. After all, John was writing a blog before most newspaper people even knew what one was. And he maintains a lively stream of commentary on Twitter. So I was flattered when John let me know (via Twitter, of course) that he was taking my recent post, “Three signs your newsroom isn’t ready to cross the digital divide,” as a challenge and using my ideas to guide a reorganization of his newsroom
I argued in that post that print still holds the power in many newsrooms and it shows up who the staff reports to (print desks), the meeting schedules and emphasis (print again) and in the top leadership (longtime newspaper people like me). Changing those things will help change the culture of the newsroom and create an environment where digital is no longer an add on to print.
John let me know he was going to make changes in his newsroom of 70 plus journalists. I asked him to answer a few questions about this work in progress. What follows is a transcript of his responses (boldface emphasis added by me):
Q. How has your newsroom been organized in terms of print and online?
A. Traditionally, I think. Currently, our online operation is separate, meaning that the staff reports to someone outside of the news department…in this case, a manager with a digital sales background but little content experience. However, the content producers - there are four - work in the newsroom, and all of them came from the newspaper journalism side of the equation. They have a strong journalism background, understand newspaper and digital needs, and the digital leader is a member of the news department’s leadership team. On the org. chart the “dotted line” relationship with the news department is strong.
In one sense, we are integrated. Reporters, photographers and editors write, shoot and edit for the newspaper and for online. That’s the way it’s been for seven or eight years. Reporters are supposed to post news as they know it. But we have had our ups and downs in how closely that is followed. Some reporters and their editors are good at it. But with others, digital is at best an afterthought. By and large, the online team produces much of the original news content on the site, with the exception of our blogs and photo galleries, which are produced almost entirely by the news or editorial department.
Q. What are you changing?
A. Beginning Jan. 1, the 4 content producers will become part of the news department. (We have a fifth, a videographer, that we will share with advertising. More on him later.) One of them is in charge of the site and he will report directly to me with the authority to direct anyone in news to do what is needed digitally. His role is part-innovator, part-organizer, part-editor, part-cheerleader.
He will become one of two leaders in our morning meeting in which we discuss what’s happening that day, and he’s getting a larger role in our afternoon meeting. The afternoon meeting is, truly, a “front page” planning meeting for the next day’s newspaper. But before the city editor talks about what’s coming in tomorrow’s paper, the digital editor discusses what has happened today, what’s getting traffic online, what stories have been “out there all day” and what we have online that the newspaper can refer to.
He also is charged with knowing what the reporters are working on and making sure that they file online reports when we need them to versus when they get to it. In that sense, he’s part editor and part coach. He can assign photographers to shoot online only events.
That is all new. Before, editors were primarily responsible for making sure that reporters and photographers posted and updated the site. Because those editors and most of the reporters were print-centric, the results were choppy, at best.
What I’m getting to is this: our culture is about halfway to where it needs to be. Your three questions told me that. We were on the cusp of digital newsrooms six years ago, made some decent progress, and then got distracted - flattened, really - by the same recession and newsroom cutbacks that most papers went through. You questioned whether online is on the fringe of power, and I decided that you’re right about that in our newsroom.
Now the measures for everyone are going to be traffic and engagement. Each employee’s performance appraisal will have specific expectations for online performance. (In the past, digital performance has been included in performance objectives but most of the time the expectations have been too general to have much meaning.)
In the end, the culture change will be driven by me, the digital editor and the city editor. We’re all on board with what’s needed. Now we need to execute.
(The programmers and designers remain with the online department, which means that we have to work cooperatively with them to get changes to help drive the news traffic. Not my ideal structure, but I can work with it.)
Q. Any changes among top editors?
A. Aside from the probable need to change the slack-assed top editor himself? No. We have great editors. The challenge has been and is mine to give them more specific direction and to demand accountability. I have come to the realization - again helped by your post - that I have not made the vision as clear as I should.
Q. What about your learning goals?
A. As an editor who is a print veteran, you slapped me around in your column. My job is always to make sure we’re skating to where the puck is going to be. I haven’t done that very well lately. As a result, my goals are to keep abreast of what the smart innovators are thinking and doing, and determine swiftly if we can translate them here. And to experiment more.
Q. You said you don’t have enough staff now to create an online assignment desk? Do you want to head in that direction longer term?
A. I’ll answer that specifically in a moment. The online staff is this:
* An editor.
* A reporter who spends most of his time reporting and posting original-to-the-web stories and moderating comments.
* A content producer - spends most of his time reporting/managing a bunch of consumer-related content (video, print, newsletter, social media) and who also works on posting content to the site
* A second content producer - spends most of his time handling our online calendar and our classified vertical sites.
* A videographer - we share him with advertising. He shoots ad-sponsored video first and news stuff second.
Under the news structure, everyone’s job duties are being evaluated. The editor, in particular, will probably have the biggest change. He will be more of a leader and coach, and will be the point person to drive the newsroom culture change.
In Greensboro, at least, the newspaper is still the big dog, bringing in most of the revenue and, still, thousands of thousands of eyeballs. I don’t think we’re ready to shift the assignment duties.
On the other hand, if we execute correctly, reporters and editors will understand what’s needed for digital, period. We’re a small enough organization that it isn’t too much to ask assignment editors to think digital and print. The city desk is about 15 feet away from where most of the digital guys sit, so it’s not as if we’re the New York Times. We should be able to do this. I’m working on measures now so that we will know if we’re making progress.
Q. What obstacles do you expect and how big are they?
A. The biggest is simply the resistance to change, but I think the door is open and we just need to push on through.
Another is sorting through all the gray areas. Those of us who thrive in the different shades of gray will be fine. But many people like things in black and white - “Do this/not that” “Eat this/not that.” For those people, this can be confusing. “My boss is over there so why’s the digital guy telling me what to file?” “Do I hammer down the details first or do I file what I know first?” “What do I save for print, if anything?”
Q. Why do you think it’s important to make these changes? How will they improve the work of your newsroom?
A. Was it Clayton Christensen who had this graph plotting the rise and fall of mainframe computers with the intersection of the rise of personal computers? In a way, we’re in the process of trying to time the leap from the mainframe to the personal computer. (I know some will argue that we’ve missed that leap, but I don’t think so.) In the end, I want us to land our feet.
Someone else said that we need to go to where the people are gathering. Many are still gathering around their morning newspaper. Others - and this is where the growth is, as you know - are digital denizens. We need to be there with more content and value than we are. If we want to stay relevant, we need to be everywhere people are gathering and help them with our journalism however they need to be helped. We aren’t doing a very good job with that now. Of course, you’re interviewing a cost center here, not a revenue source. And that’s one of our challenges.
And I want the news folks here to be ready to go wherever journalism and technology takes them. The newspaper won’t last forever. If you don’t know what people are interested in, how to post, how to write online, how to use social media and how to interact actively and openly, you’re screwed. The future is bright for journalists, I think, but you have to be open and ready. Now more than ever we need to have a learning newsroom. This is a big part of that.
——
Thanks, John. This looks like a great start, and I like the fact that John Robinson and his staff are not trying to invent a perfect structure right away. Instead, they are jumping in and making changes. At the same time, I think the digital commitment can grow. I hope they keep learning and building towards a newsroom culture that will carry them into the future. Good luck!
Comments (3) • Permalink • Tell-a-Friend
Tags: knight foundation
Comments
I learned a lot from John Robinson, in his blog News&Record; - “COVERING SCIENCE IN CYBERSPACE” now attempt put into practice some tips on my blog of Review and Marketing
Thanks John for the time and effort you spend on journalism.
Sincerely
Jhonny
By Seo-Marketing, 12/17/10 at 7:24 am
It is a very useful information for those interested and for me personally. College essays might be useful for you.Thanks to creators!
By Zinas, 12/18/10 at 10:57 am
One of the most exciting things for girls is when they get to dress up cocktail dresses, and the
ultimate time to dress up is the high school prom. They get to spend weeks looking around for the best dress which will make them look as stunning as possible. It’s
every girl’s dream to pick out the perfect dress. A balance of style and swagger which will get you noticed, but also be elegant sufficient for the prom. This article
is for all of the girls out there searching for that excellent prom dress.
Unlike guys searching for tuxedos, lots of girls end up buying their prom dress. Even though it’s far more than likely the only time they will wear it, it’s still
some thing so unique that they will wish to maintain it around forever. Since you are buying the dress you’ll need to have to figure out what price range you are
looking in. Choose what your budget is and go from there together with your search.
Since this is such a special night cheap bridesmaid dresses, you are going to desire to dazzle as much as possible plus the
best method to do that is have a dress that not just looks great but fits great. You would like some [url=“http://www.rs2shopping.com/formal-dresses-c-
70_72.html”]formal dresses[/url] too. Be certain you get the right measurements so the [url=“http://www.rs2shopping.com/new-prom-dresses-c-17_18.html”]prom dresses
2011[/url] not just looks excellent on you, but also is comfortable to wear for the night.
When deciding what kind of design you are going to go with you’ll need to take into account a couple of distinctive things. Are you going for a classic look? What sort
of pattern are you looking for?Have some thing in
mind that you can look for.
As the girl, it’s going to be up to you to decide what the color scheme is going to be for you and your date. This does not mean you might have to match perfectly but
you will want to have somewhat of the same colors so that you do not clash. Pick a color that you both agree on [url=“http://www.rs2shopping.com/prom-dresses-c-
4.html”]prom dresses[/url], but 1 that you feel comfy in.
For lots of girls the prom is the ultimate day of dress up. You get to pick the best dress and hopefully have the perfect night. Use some of these tips to aid make your
prom best.
By Samele, 01/13/11 at 8:19 pm
Page 1 of 1 pages
Commenting is not available in this section entry.
Exploring innovation, transformation and leadership in a new ecosystem of news, by journalist and change advocate 
RSS Feed