News Leadership 3.0
July 15, 2008
Knight Leadership Conference:
Top editors chart a path
to journalism’s digital future
With all the grim news from the news industry—staff reductions, top editor resignations—it’s easy to fall into a state of hopelessness. Certainly journalism’s most widely read news aggregator—Romenesko—often feels like a relentless chronicle of malaise and decline.
So it has been very encouraging—and enlightening—for me to speak with and exchange e-mails with the two dozen editors who are participating this week in Knight Digital Media Center‘s annual Leadership Conference, “Transforming News Organizations for the Digital Now.” Like their peers across the industry, they face struggles and challenges both within their organizations and without. They are far from naive. But they are very determined to take their organizations across the digital divide. We’re hoping that determination—and the advice of a couple of dozen experts who are joining the conference—will help them draft bold plans for reorganizing and re-energizing their organizations.
A team of two people - the top editor and the top online editor—from 12 traditionally print organizations will participate in the conference, which starts today and runs through Friday. Participating organizations: The Commercial Appeal, the Dayton Daily News, the (Rochester) Democrat and Chronicle, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Journal-Gazette (Fort Wayne), the Ledger-Enquirer (Columbus, Ga.), the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Orange County Register, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Seattle Times, The Spokesman-Review (Spokane), and The Wichita Eagle.
I’ll make a brief introductory presentation identifying some of the patterns and issues that cropped up in my pre-conference interviews. (Later in the evening, we’ll hear about the digital audience from Amy Mitchell of the Project for Excellence in Journalism and then we’ll explore “Seven Deadly Myths of Innovation” with Krisztina “Z” Holly, Vice Provost for Innovation at the University of Southern California, where the Knight Center is based.
For now, here are a few trends from participating news organizations:
- They’ve reorganized in the past year, mostly to do a better job of getting breaking news online by dedicating reporters and editors to the Web. Those moves are showing results in increased Web traffic.Some of the newsrooms have undergone more radical changes—Rochester adopted Gannett’s Information Center model; at the Orange County Register, two-thirds of the newsroom reports to the online desk.
One editor: “Our priority is to create a fast and flexible culture in which we think online first, then print. Ultimately, it is to transform our newsroom into a 24-7 news organization. We must deliver news and information to readers and viewers when they want it and how they want. We integrate our approach. Our editors plan online coverage AND print coverage. We want to be first and we want to be best. We must continually be changing jobs and approaches. We did this a lot last year; we must do more this year. We do not believe in a big “ta da” approach. It should be organic but should also be urgent. Our survival is at stake in this competitive world we live in.”
- The culture in their newsrooms is improving, with more journalists adopting a Web-first mantra.Still, few believe they have achieved critical mass for a more nimble, online-adept culture. There are fewer pockets of resistance. But traditionally print-centric groups—in some cases copy desks or assignment editors—lack online reflexes.
Here’s one editor: “It’s like most places. There are 30 percent who get it, 30 percent who aren’t sure and 30 percent who are resistant. It’s a mixed bag. Some people are unhappy because they feel like it’s more work. Some people are really enthusiastic about it.”
- Culture aside, newsroom production systems and processes remain still highly print focused. As their staffs contract, newsroom leaders are pressed to re-evaluate the print-online balance. How will they support both a robust print product - since it still pays most of the bills - with more aggressive moves online. Dayton, Rochester and Orange County have begun systematically repurposing (yes, I hate that word too. Alternative?) online content for the next day’s newspaper.
Here’s one editor: “Print is going to be around for a long time. It delivers 90 percent of our revenue. That’s the difficulty, trying to start this new business and keep the old one going. It’s going to be a struggle. We could do one or the other very well but to do both is a real challenge—especially with considerably fewer resources.”
- Newsroom staff cuts in these organizations range from about 10 to 40 percent from peak. Twenty-five percent is the norm.
One editor: “My goal is to continue to leverage my news staff across as many platforms as we can manage ... The only way we can sustain a newsroom of this size is to master all of these platforms.”
- Newsroom leaders also are frustrated by problems with technology and a general lack of technological resources. Competition for programmers is fierce—within news organizations and in the larger marketplace, which pays better than newspapers. One oneline editor: “It is difficult to attract Web developers because of the perception that the print industry is in decline. Web developers would bring the expertise that is currently lacking as we rely on converting print journalists into online specialists.”
- These problems notwithstanding, these editor report a dizzying array of accomplishments on the Web. From photo galleries, to databases, to videos, to interactive graphics, to broadcast programming, to affinity sites, the migration to online in these newsrooms is going full force. But few think they are ahead of the curve. Social networks, search and mobile delivery loom large on many horizons.
From an online editor: “I try to help quickly move our operation toward a better understanding of audience needs, and a workflow that is multimedia centric. I do this with the realization that we’re asking a shrinking staff to do more every day. The key is in identifying those areas where we can pull back and relax standards or output, and those areas where we must press harder to gain traction.”
Do these newsrooms, taken collectively, sound fairly typical? Please reflect on your challenges, experiments and solutions in the comments.
(Note: I will not be quoting specific conference participants by name or by the name of their news organization without their permission. It’s a tradeoff. We want to make as much information from the conference available as possible. At the same time, we do not want participants to feel inhibited in the discussions. All expert presentations and comments will be attributed.)
July 10, 2008
A new, newsroom role puts
audience and agility first
What’s your model for change?
Following a new round of layoffs and reorganization at The Tampa Tribune, much discussion has focused on a blog post in which Tribune intern Jessica DaSilva described the layoff announcement and drew harsh criticism from other journalists (see comments in the same post) for a) admiring the way Tampa Executive Editor Janet Coats handled the layoffs and 2) being too young to have a valid opinion.
This response struck me as symptomatic of old newsroom culture: First, shoot the messenger, then deny there’s a problem or find someone (Coats and other newsroom executives) to blame for it. Happily, journalists also stepped forward to support DeSilva for caring and to support Coats for having a plan.
Indeed, Coats has a bold plan, and it just might work. The reorganization she and her staff are developing should get a serious look from any newspaper editor who is trying to cross the burning bridge to more stable times. You can read a long describing the changes here on Romenesko.
I want to focus on one aspect of the plan, the new job of “audience editors.” There apparently will be 5-6 of them in Tampa and they will operate just below the rank of managing editor in a newsroom that will produce print, online and broadcast reports. Here is how the memo describes the role:
“The Audience Editors are the advocates for the audience in daily and longer-term story choices and story development. Their charge is to make sure we are working on the right things to serve audience needs and wants. They also are responsible for ensuring that we are working on enough of the right things to create relevant, robust newspapers, newscasts and online content.
“· Audience advocacy. The AEs lead the newsroom in thinking about how best to serve the audience. The AEs have a deep knowledge of our audience research across all platforms, and they use that knowledge to guide them in setting priorities for story coverage. They educate and inform the rest of the newsroom about what works for the audience, and they track which stories are moving audience within the news cycle.
“· Quantity control. The AEs are responsible for ensuring that we have enough of the right kinds of stories in production to serve each platform during the news cycle. They can shift resources to focus on different stories, depending on news priorities. They can advance production on particular stories, or stockpile content if we are over-producing for a certain news cycle. They’ll work with the finishing groups to ensure there is a range of stories to be considered for each product.
“· Quality control. The AEs have the responsibility for identifying stories with high audience potential, reallocating resources around the newsroom to reflect those priorities and ensuring coordination among the work groups. If the AEs determine that resources are being devoted to stories with low impact, they can redirect work onto other topics with more potential. They can kill a story or elevate it.
“· Promoting interactivity. The AEs understand that the core of the news mission is to create stories readers can interact with. The AEs identify stories with high potential for interaction, be it through user comments, databases, the potential for user-generated content or by appealing to highly motivated niche audiences. The AEs work with the news circles and the finishing group to apply the best interactive strategies to the stories they have identified as having high audience interest.
“· Communication. The AEs will develop the best method of communicating the daily news priorities to the overall newsroom. They will build a communication system that is real time, focused not on meetings but on the evolution of the news priorities throughout the day.
“· Coordination. The AEs will look for gaps and overlaps among the content circles (reporting teams). They will work with the circle editors to set priorities, mediate coverage disputes and shift reporting resources appropriately. The AEs will communicate daily with the finishing group leaders to track development of each product for that news cycle and to reset coverage priorities accordingly.
“· In summary: The AEs enforce the need for production. They are empowered to shift resources among the work groups to make sure we have enough content for all three platforms. The AEs enforce quality. The AEs are the nerve center of the operation, setting daily goals, looking out for more long-term story possibilities and constantly shifting resources to match priorities.”
Two aspects of this plan hold particular promise for improving content and, perhaps, creating a more saavy, adaptive newsroom culture:
1. Audience focus: “The Audience Editors are the advocates for the audience in daily and longer-term story choices and story development.” Traditionally, the audience is not at the table when editors decide what to cover and who to cover it for different platforms. “What readers want” often is a proxy for what editors want. If these editors can effectively bring audience expertise to the discussion, maintain an independent perspective, and communicate in ways that build staff expertise—without being afraid to use their veto power —Tampa may significantly better its content across platforms.
2. Power to shift resources: The AEs are ... constantly shifting resources to match priorities. In the traditional newsroom, shifting resources can take weeks, even months, and smart moves often die on the vine of turf politics. Tampa’s plan is likely to see many fits and starts as both Audience Editors and the newsroom as a whole learn what works. But this could be a formula for creating a more nimble newsroom.
How has your newsroom used structural changes to create better content and a more adaptive newsroom culture? Please share your experiences in the comments.
July 10, 2008
Star-Telegram sports program
receives television honors
I recently learned that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had won a regional Emmy this year from the Lone Star Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, for its High School Huddle football program on www.star-telegram.com. The program is part of www.dfwvarsity.com, Fort Worth’s mega site for high school sports described here. The Emmy-winning show sounded like a great example of a traditional print newsroom learning new skills and applying them to news and information of high interest to the community. Kathy Vetter, Deputy Managing Editor/Multimedia, discusses the show in this guest post:
By Kathy Vetter
Our High School Huddle program originated exactly where it should have - in the Sports department. Our newspaper editor responsible for high school sports floated the idea of a weekly video program, and we then called in our video experts and started talking about who could host the show. We ended up shooting a 12- to 15-minute program every week for 16 weeks. Most of it was shot in segments in our newsroom studio, with the graphics, photos, video clips and music bed added in post-production by our video editor.
We used one main host and rotated in the two expert writers each week, from a pool of about four. These experts cover high schools for the newspaper. The host covered high schools for us for several years, but is now a Cowboys writer. When the playoffs started, we simply went with a host and co-host.
We shot the show using three cameras and a video switcher to output a single video feed. We used an audio board to mix the audio from the three mics. We scripted the show each weekend and gathered the photos and video clips of games on Monday. We occasionally went into the field on Mondays to get fresh video. We shot the show Tuesday morning, imported the file into Final Cut Pro, and had the show edited and ready to post by very early Wednesday morning.
We shot at least one video game of the week each Friday night, usually narrated in person by the same reporter who hosted High School Huddle. Those were edited and posted by early Saturday morning. We then used that video, either from the current week or the archives, to provide the game clips for the Huddle. We set up an online poll that allowed readers to choose the game of the week from the four our staff had selected. That was the game that we shot video of. The poll received around 50,000 votes each week.
Staffing-wise, the director did most of the research and wrote the script (mostly info on cue cards), the high school sports editor helped pick the games we would discuss, the three reporters came in on Tuesday to do the show, and the video editor did the live switching and ran the audio board, then did the editing and graphics work. We got help from the photo desk in finding the necessary photos and running the cameras in the studio, and the high school sports staff helped with research.
The High School Huddle and games of the week are by far our most popular videos. For the five-month period beginning in September 2007 and ending at the end of January 2008, our High School Huddle of Nov. 6 was our highest-rated program, with 214,777 page views. The following week’s Huddle was No. 2, with 191,774. We easily topped a million page views for all HSH and game of the week videos during that time period. And a local car dealership bought a sponsorship for the videos.
The best advice is that this is worth doing. Even if you don’t do a studio show, find a way to take out a camera and shoot a game of the week. Ours were nothing fancy - a little game action, some time with the band and cheerleaders, some standups by our host - but they quickly became viral and they solidified our reputation as the media company that cares about something that’s very important in our community.
Here is a link to High School Huddle.
By Michele McLellan, 07/10/08 at 4:30 am
Posted in
Broadcast |
Multimedia |
Innovation |
Staffing |
Video
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July 08, 2008
Fort Worth’s high school site
attracts users and revenue
Successful online ventures identify and tap into community passions. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has created a megasite for high school sports and is riding a wave of popularly and building revenue. I asked Ellen Alfano, Deputy Executive Editor/Vice President for Online at the Star-Telegram about the site, www.dfwvarsity.com, and the result is this guest post:
By Ellen Alfano
High school football is more than a tradition in Texas - it is an integral part of our culture. The Star-Telegram devotes a lot of resources and space to Friday night football. So three years ago, the Sports department and IS department began working on a super web site that would connect us to those readers who are fanatical about “Friday Night Lights.”
We created a home page for every high school team that we cover - nearly 100 - and have continued to improve the functionality as well as the number of high school sports that are part of the site. The site includes team photos, results, statistics, schedules, recruiting updates, player information, message boards and score alerts, as well as blogs and interactive pages for uploading user generated photos and videos. We have expanded the concept to include girls and boys basketball, soccer, baseball, softball and volleyball.
The staff that produces the content for dfwVarsity is a small army of sports staffers, correspondents and employees from different areas of the newspaper. This is the same group that covers games for the newspaper, only they file for the Web site after each quarter of a game and immediately after the game is over. The only additional people we have devoted to this project are programmers. There were a few missteps along the way, most of them involving the programming. We are currently working on the third version of the software and we have a web developer from IS working with a newsroom web developer to finish the newest version.
Anyone who is considering a site like this needs to have a project leader who understands sports and agate as well as web development. Developers who worked on the site but didn’t understand sports left us with a table structure that was not flexible enough to allow us to adapt it to additional sports.
The one area that has never been an issue is the popularity of dfwVarsity.com. The site had more than 3 millon page views last year. It has also been a revenue-producer from the beginning. We began with a sponsor who paid $12,000. This year we will produce almost $200,000 in revenue.
Last year’s dfwvarsity site, including the videos, brought in $5,000 a month in revenue. The video was not specifically targeted. We quickly realized that was too low. This year, the main sponsorship was sold to Chevrolet for $10,000 a month for 10 months
One feature of the site is a weekly video program during the football season that just won an Emmy. More about that program later this week.
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