CHAPTER 7 MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE Bring in the changes – here’s the theory

ome changes are gradual, like the slow Plan for change Smigration of certain advertising to If you and your team are facing major online. They need proactive and pre-emp- change, set aside some dedicated time to tive editorship styles. Some changes are think about the deeper dynamics sharp and crisis-shaped, like major budg- involved. If you want an advanced grip, et cuts, calling for reactive flexibility. Other consider using the following planner: changes need vision, as when there are new ventures, re-positioning, special proj- 1 Context: what is the top change most ects or different ways of working. relevant to your current situation? In the turbulent sea of competitive • Technology and convergence journalism, editors need to understand • New reporting systems and account- the deeper complexities of changes and ability how to bob above the turmoil, even sail • Change of faces (above or below) somewhere on it. And sometimes be the • Cash squeeze or new budget targets change agent who stirs up the waves. • Heightened competition Times of change force editors to • A new editorial project improve their competency to prioritise • Dumbing down or tabloidisation what should get attention. • Racial and gender transformation When that change is open-ended, • New owners or political realign- such as convergence scenarios, you have ments that impact on you to be guided not so much by a vision of Other…………………… ……………………….. where things are going as by the founda- tional values from whence you came. That 2 Position yourself to understand what’s up lodestone is something to hold aloft to • Is the change permanent/temporary? help guide your decision-making about • Is it planned, or unforeseen? uncertainties. • Symbolic or seriously substantive? Change entails: • What will stay constant? • New things: learning, creating and/or adapting to them. 3 Threats, opportunities or hybrid of both? • Letting go of some existing practices, • Threat: “a bad thing”: sometimes even people. • Change is pain, change hurts • Knowing what old things to keep. • The impacts on your operation’s Part of managing change is dealing with knowledge base – eg causing anxieties over balancing these three uncertainty unavoidables. • The impacts on your staff’s According to Gill Geisler of the emotions – eg creating fear Poynter Institute, like it or not there are • Promise: “a good thing”: five principles you need to recognise: • Inertia is stifling – the “ain’t broke, a. Change happens; it will happen to don’t fix” ethos is an enemy of you. innovation and renewal b. Change is not necessarily fair. • Change can help avoid becoming the c. Change creates more work. victim of other changes d. Change requires communication. • Keep both dimensions in mind and e. Change can be a time of renewal. develop actions in regard to each.

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 155 4 How do you and others react to the loss of peer group network, letting go, major change at hand? saying goodbye, insomnia, conflict, Positively, with enthusiasm, opportuni- politics, criticism, mutiny, high risk, ty, challenge, excitement, new skills resistance, misunderstanding. and knowledge, reward, fulfilment, survival, new start, new options, Expect elements of both – even within learning experience, motivating. yourself! Acknowledging them explicitly Negatively, with fear, anxiety, shock, dis- is key to addressing them. trust, anger, stress, unrealistic resent- (Adapted from: Liz Clarke, The Essence of ment, loss of self-esteem or identity, Change, London: Prentice-Hall, 1994) confusion, uncertainty, demotivation,

5 Understand resistance to change READ THESE Many people, even editors, resist change. Sometimes rightly so, even successfully Quotes on change so. But when a change needs to be Changing culture is a tall order in any pushed ahead, it helps to think about organisation; experts say expect to give it why some people dig their heels in: three to five years of hard work. • Fear of the unknown ✱ • Loss of control It was the business literacy training • Not understanding reasons – lack of session that many editors point to as an information early turning point for increasing the level • Reluctance to let go of conversation in the newsrooms around • Unexpected surprise change. • Loss of face – indictment of existing ✱ and past efforts … a new idea or change in routine might • Fear of looking stupid first be met by opposition from journal- • Feeling vulnerable and exposed ists. (“It would be stupid to do that.”) • Threat to status and power base If that doesn’t work, perfectionism – • More and/or different work particularly as evidenced in an unrealistic • Lack of perceived benefits commitment to flawless results – might • Threat to status. kick it. (“We don’t have time to do that.”) In some environments, this perfectionism The four classic phases of reaction to might even be the first response. unwanted change – and suggested posi- If there is still a beating pulse to the tive responses to them – are: idea, it might encounter passive resist- • Disbelief, shock, denial: (“it will soon ance. (“ I will go through the motions, but be over”) – Find and circulate facts; my heart’s not in it. This too will pass.”). give people time. Any of the three styles is equally • Anger, depression, resistance effective at stopping a change initiative in (“anger, blame, anxiety”) – Listen and its tracks. empathise. ✱ • Acceptance (internalising), acknowl- When an entire workforce begins to take edgement, letting go. – Help define, greater responsibility, day in and day out, consolidate, support. for its own happiness, change is apparent. • Adaptation and exploration – Ideally embracing the change with commit- – From Williams, V. 2007. All eyes for- ment, developing ownership (“getting ward. How to help your newsroom get to on board”) Develop long-term goals, where it wants to go faster. The learning teams, rewards. newsroom at the American Press Institute. On-the-ball editors will promote a per- manent culture of the last phase, there-

156 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE 7

HANDY HINT Add it up

Dis- Desirability Practicality satisfaction Successful of of with status + + = change change change quo

fore leapfrogging the earlier stages. 7 How to lead change Putting it mathematically: successful • Recognise the culture of the change = the sum of dissatisfaction with organisation status quo + desirability of change + • Diagnose the situation – jointly practicality of change. Editors need to • Scenario plan: identify the optimum work at this till the bottom line of the outcome, and list ways to get there equation is a value greater than the cost • Don’t work uphill. of changing. • Focus on the easiest areas (Adapted from Clarke) • Choreograph and celebrate success • Be optimistic How to deal with resistance to change: • Compromise • Talk and teach. • Manage myths and rumours • Get people involved. • Work on your integrity and • Help others adjust. trustability. • Negotiate to avoid major resistance. Along the way, it’s clearly critical to have But watch out: intelligence about progress or setback • Manipulation and co-optation can and initiate remedial action where lead to ill-feeling. necessary. • Explicit and implicit coercion can arouse anger. 8 Putting principles into practice (From John P Kottler and Leonard A • Define the human objects – and sub- Schlesinger: Choosing strategies for change. jects – of the targeted change (can Harvard Business Review, March-April, 1979) they be one and the same?) • Assess the problem AND opportuni- ty dimensions. 6 How to cause change • Describe your best outcome scenario. Whether you start a change strategy with • Describe your worst outcome. fireworks, or by stealth, the following • What can you compromise on in the fundamental steps have been identified best outcome? by John P Kotter as important to take: • Who is an obstacle to best outcome? • Create a sense of urgency (realities, • How will the resisters react (cf four crisis) phases)? What can you do to get • Form a powerful guiding coalition them through the early phases? (team to lead) • Who is an ally for the best outcome? • (Co-)Create the vision How can you synergise with them? • Communicate the vision • Describe your first 3 communication • Empower others to act on the vision steps in moving ahead. • Ensure short-term wins (visible • List 2 quick gains you can deliver. improvements, rewards) • How will you consolidate and rein- • Consolidate improvements (build on force what you achieve? credibility) • Specify a reward to give yourself for • Institutionalise the new (compare it success in being Change Champion. to the old, prepare for the next) – Guy Berger

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 157 CHANGE THE VIBE Cultivating newsroom culture

orkplace culture is made up of how Ask them Wemployees relate to each other and You can easily research your news- the enterprise as whole. room’s culture. It is fundamental to performance, Draw some questions from what fol- impacting on staff satisfaction, motiva- lows, or create your own, but make up a tion, teamwork and output quality. The questionnaire to send out to staff, ask- culture of any given team is greater than ing them to fill it in. You can make it the individual editor, but leadership style anonymous, or you can ask for names – and power can help reinforce or change either way, give feedback to them when it. Leadership can make the difference you’ve composited the results: between two models of culture. • List three things you feel are right about the newsroom. • List three things you think are wrong TRADITIONAL ➜ LEARNING and need to be fixed in the news- NEWSROOM NEWSROOM room. Information ➜ Information • If there was one thing you could held by a few shared change about the news department, Strategy is a ➜ Goals are well- secret known what would it be? Training is static ➜ Training is done • Do you have a clear idea of what is to goals expected of you at work? Command/control ➜ Ideas flow • Do you have an opportunity to grow styles bottom-up in this news department? Waits for a ➜ Takes smart risks • List the five most important things rescue you think the editor needs to do over Clings to old ➜ Anticipates the next six months. ways change • What do we do better than our com- (from Williams, V. 2007. All eyes forward. petitors? How to help your newsroom get to where it • What do our competitors do better wants to go faster. The Learning Newsroom than we do? at the American Press Institute. p.14) • What is the biggest impediment to you personally doing your best work Do it yourself here? To take stock of your workplace culture, • What would you like to know about locate it on this binary grid below (adapt- the editor that you don’t already ed from newsimproved.org). It is artifi- know? cial in its extremes, and you may often • What is your media house’s news have sub-cultures, differences between strategy? departments, or hybrid areas of the two • What are the roadblocks standing in poles. But overall does your shop lean the way of the media house being one way or the other? successful?

Constructive culture Defensive culture Communication Open and honest Some voices dominate, others don’t con- tribute New ideas Lots bubbling up Conformity rules. Initiative is shot down, and/or people abdicate interest in making suggestions Collaboration Working in teams Working in silos and defending turf; seeking to avoid blame. Goals Balance between detail Detail without big picture and big picture priorities

158 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE 7

• What is preventing you from being Understanding negative cultures successful in your job? In 2000, the Readership Institute at • What phrase best describes our work Northwestern University found that that environment: all but a handful of 90 American papers - Respectful and professional had defensive cultures. - Friendly and warm The research noted striking similari- - Harsh and cold ties between many newspapers and mil- - Strained and frustrating itary units in this regard. - Challenging and stimulating In both: - Demanding and overwhelming • People worked in a top-down envi- (adapted from: Radio and Television News ronment, competed with peers, were Directors Foundation) risk averse and focused one-sidedly on personal performance rather than Don’t reject any staff responses, even if overall goals. they implicate you in saying that the • Managers rarely caught employees newsroom is far from having a construc- doing things right, but never missed tive culture. Don’t blame the question- when they did things wrong. naire. Don’t become passive or start • Unresolved conflict and turnover rationalising the situation on the basis of were common. limited resources and scope for change. Defensive journalistic culture emerged in In the end, you’ll only avoid thinking an industrial age of mass media produc- about the necessary changes. tion. Experts say it takes an aggressive- Cultural nuance defensive form, and that the dominant Management experts typically identify style is perfectionism. People are expect- three types of organisational cultures: ed to avoid all mistakes, keep track of • Constructive (good) everything and work long hours to meet • Passive-defensive (bad) narrow objectives. • Aggressive-defensive (worst). Another aspect is that this culture is These different options may suit diverse oppositional – which entails much mis- kinds of organisations, but in an era of take-finding and confrontation, such as massive communications change, media between old-style kick-butt news editors should lean towards the first. and reporters. This is because in a constructive The model has some benefits, not newsroom culture, people are more like- least because it has worked for more ly to: than a century. Some oppositional behav- • Take initiative and responsibility at all iour can be useful in a newsroom. There levels. is a reason for perfectionism. • Enjoy brainstorming and trying new But many feel the model as a whole things. inhibits people from taking chances, • Learn even from failed experiments. leads to issues avoidance, and that it is • Be open to change. stuck with a focus on flaws rather than • Feel their potential is being realised. solutions. • Grow, learn and stay with the compa- The research by the Readership ny. Institute in the US found a huge gap A constructive culture depends on three between the prevalent culture and the things: participation by employees in ideal (constructive) one. decision-making, open communication, The key shortfalls were in giving pos- and transparency. itive feedback and encouragement, and (adapted from: News, Improved: Learning assisting colleagues to think uniquely, to Change. From a New Book by Michele develop and enjoy their work. McLellan and Tim Porter, 2008) – Guy Berger

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 159 MIDDLE MANAGEMENT Focus on the field officers! f you want results from the foot-sol- lenges in generating quality journalism, Idiers of journalism – your reporters – the bigger issue was “why” this troubling put resources into those who directly picture existed. manage this rank. Among the several causes, one impor- That’s the strategic focus – loud and tant factor was pinpointed: the quality of clear – emerging from research commis- the direct line management of the junior sioned by the South African National journalists. Editors’ Forum (Sanef). Following this up, Sanef in 2005 sur- The forum began with a study in 2002 veyed news editors around the country, to investigate problems at the junior and found that: reporter level about skills and attitudes. • Two in every five of the frontline news (www.sanef.org.za/skills_audit/phase_1/) managers had less than three years’ That research emphatically confirmed journalistic experience. This inexperi- that most reporters had: ence affected their confidence in • Paltry general knowledge, inferior managing reporters – who in turn interviewing skills and low ability to had a very low opinion of their boss- use language. es’ skills to do so. • Weaknesses in media law, and were • Reporters complained that new man- uninformed in terms of media ethics, agers failed to brief and debrief them, poor at newsgathering and writing and to give career advice. The man- skills, and unconcerned about agers in turn said they were too busy accuracy. due to pressures of deadlines and that • Inadequacies in their coverage of they had to tread carefully because of HIV/Aids and race, and low commit- reporters’ over-sensitivity. ment to the profession. • Internal communications in news- If these were the “what” about the chal- rooms were poor, and exacerbated by the fact that 70% of the news man- agers surveyed had either English or Afrikaans as a home language. The WORK ON IT reporters studied (half of whom spoke an indigenous African language) saw Give them skills their bosses as unwilling to deal with diversity. A survey by the Readership Institute of US • While the news managers put “team newspapers found that top editors get work” at the bottom of a list of areas the lowest effectiveness ranking for where they needed development, ensuring that subordinate editors are reporters cited this as the biggest skilled at managing. need for their supervisors. Middle managers were seen as least The picture was one of news editors effective when it came to regularly dis- under pressure from the bottom, but also cussing career goals and providing con- lacking support from the top. Many sen- structive criticism to employees. ior editors seemed to lack awareness of Another key finding was the need for the problems experienced by middle edi- more recognition of reporters. The study torial managers. said this mattered a great deal to most The solution, proposes the Sanef journalists, but was too often ignored by study, is for the top echelon to get more their leaders. involved in coaching and mentoring their (from: Leadership: It may never matter news managers. more. ASNE Leadership Committee, Editors themselves are under huge available at: www.asne.org/kiosk/edi- pressures, but they need to do this – or tor/01.jan-feb/buckner1.htm) continue to suffer the cascading conse- quences. – Guy Berger

160 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE 7

AS I SEE IT Innovating new products

Peter Bruce My idea was to bring revenue in Editor of Business through the new products and to help Day boost the price of the papers. But how? We had three possibilities: • We would find sponsors for some supplements (we tried not to call them sponsors, but they were). • Or we would find partners to co- t my first BDFM board meeting as publish with. Aeditor of Business Day in early • Or find publishers who wanted to 2001 I asked for two things. use us as a distribution channel. One was to hire 14 new staff for key The idea with the sponsors was that jobs I’d identified in the run-up to my they would help launch the product by editorship. The other was to turn sharing commercial risk: Business Day Business Day into a sort of shopping PM (SAA), Business Day Africa (Trans- basket, full of value-adding supple- net), Law (Edward Nathan), Health ments we could then use as an excuse (Discovery). The sales department to begin charging more for the paper, would use the time created by stable while also getting more revenue. revenue to bring in other advertisers. Not all went as planned. By the end This didn’t always work well in practice of 2001 we were deep in the red. Not and supplements folded after sponsors only had I not hired any of my 14, but became fatigued or their managements we had made a further 35 or so redun- or priorities changed. dant. A scary time. Co-publishing worked better. We But the supplements have worked. produce Motor News and Home Front Last year they raised R30-million and with a partner who provides content we have more than doubled the cover and advertising. Perhaps because they price in the intervening years. are weekly, or about cars and homes, Almost the entire editorial cost is they have done incredibly well. I think now, theoretically at least, covered by frequency is vital to a new product. the cover price. That’s been vital to us The only products we innovated as the rule obliging listed companies to ourselves, an eight-page Appointments advertise results is always under threat and our monthly luxury magazine and, anyway, more than 400 compa- Wanted, are also profitable. nies (400 advertisers!) have delisted Now we’re preparing to carry our and no longer advertise. first branded supplement produced For newspapers, new products are a entirely outside of the company: a lifeline, provided the risk is shared. monthly glossy sports magazine. It represents the pinnacle of risk-free publishing: they take the risk and we get 30% of the revenue for free. It has been critical to us to retain editorial control (or the ability to control). They all carry our brand. My management colleagues have taught me that you can publish sponsored or co-published products with integrity. Business Day is a better (and certainly richer) newspaper for them.

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 161 HOW WE DID IT Changing strategy and internalising it

couple of years ago, The Star imple- Amented a new strategy for its editori- al content and direction. In brief, The Star’s strategy is: • Visual paper • WEDs (writing, editing and design – working in a collaborative process) • Joburg • Women • Trinity (refers to the projection in lay- out of stories with headline, pictures and stories working together) • Narrative The return to local Joburg news was a significant break from past strategy where emphasis was on The Star as a national, morning newspaper with a mix of quality and popular stories.

How it was developed The key thing is to understand the read- er: to go beyond simple demographics • Aspirant, ambitious, achievers (age, race, income). We developed a por- • Want advice on how to improve their trait of a Star reader to guide us. Here is lives a summary. • Robust, love change, risk, controver- sy, provocation, strong opinion PORTRAIT OF THE STAR READER • Highly visual animals. Pictures/ • Greater Jo’burg graphics must have an impact • Well-heeled, well-educated – or on • Self-centred but also touched by … their way to getting there • Like pleasant surprises

OUR CHECKLIST Stuck on each Star staffer’s computer

• Is your intro in Star style: short, unclut- • Have you told readers where to get help tered, captures essence of story or most or information? interesting aspect? • Have you answered all the questions • Have you personalised the story? readers will ask? • Does your photo fit in with the story? • Does your story have at least two • Have you projected women as citizens sources? and leaders; as survivors rather than • Have you checked all names, facts and victims? phone numbers are accurate? • Have you quoted at least one woman? • Have you checked that all the numbers • Does this story need a graphic? add up? • If your story is complex, have you done • Have you made complex things simple? a WED before writing it? • Does your layout have a visual focus? • Have you included a text pullout? • Have you linked the photo, headline and • Have you given our readers hope? intro (trinity)?

162 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE 7

• Want hard news, but not rehashed • Want to understand their world • International news and trends • Different portrayal of women • Quality paper they are proud to read • Optimistic, patriotic, not parochial • TIME-PRESSED

Implementing the strategy 1 An executive editor was given the responsibility of being change agent. It was her role to ensure elements of the strategy were incorporated into every edition of the newspaper. 2 Extensive training by the editor and senior executive editors for all staffers on elements of the strategy. 3 Inclusion of the strategy into the daily diary. 4 The change agent made a bookmark- sized list which included elements of the strategy. This was placed on com- put the strategy into practice with puters for easy reference. various exercises. 5 Posters with the elements of the strat- 2 Daily post mortems of the paper – to egy were put up around the news- monitor alignment with the strategy. room. 3 Writing, Editing, Design (WED) meetings; weekly planning meetings. Keeping it alive We do this by: How our strategy helped 1 Training by editors once a year during The pages displayed above show how which the strategy is explained and all sticking to the strategy has turned out in staff (editors, reporters, photogra- practice. phers, design subeditors and copy – Moegsien Williams, editor of subeditors, and graphic designers) The Star, and colleagues

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 163 Repositioning, relaunch and redesign

Thabo Leshilo big business stories was not working. Editor-in-chief of Readers said Sowetan needed revamping Sowetan and to make it relevant to their lives. It was Sunday World time to adapt or die. Community involvement became cru- cial. We are a developing nation: people look up to newspapers to fight their caus- es and for guidance. We do this both edi- owetan has a proud history as a torially and through the Sowetan Nation S“struggle newspaper”. Building project. Like its immediate predecessors, The re-launched Sowetan now focus- World and Post, Sowetan played a sig- es on the mainly black African market in nificant role in the fight against the LSM 4-7 category. The strategy is apartheid by exposing its evil machina- working: circulation has risen to 135 514 tions and devastating human rights (December 2007 ABCs) and readership violations. has shot up from 1,5 million to just over It was one with the reader, hence its two million (November 2007 AMPs). circulation success. Just before the advent of democracy in 1994, the paper Qualipop sold upwards of 250 000 copies. It The new Sowetan likes to be thought was also a champion newspaper brand, of as quality popular (qualipop) or “the being voted the top newspaper brand thinking man’s tabloid”. It is important in South Africa for more than a decade. that we continue to enjoy the trust of the Ironically, like peace is bad for the reader, hence our slogan “The soul truth”. arms trade, liberation was bad news for We see it as a hybrid newspaper, fus- the politically significant Sowetan. ing the tried and tested attributes of a The newspaper, like others, failed traditional quality paper with the best to read the changing mood. It tactics of the tabloids: screaming head- remained stuck in its old ways, failing lines, colourful design, cheeky in-your- to recognise that its readers had grown face journalism and witty writing. tired of the apartheid story and want- It is “sexy but not sleazy” and we steer ed to be given hope and inspiration in clear of the gutter – guarding ourselves the new South Africa. from this by a public commitment to The result was that the paper was uphold the SA Press Code and be scruti- selling a mere 118 561 in 2004. nised by the Press Ombudsman. Changing Sowetan was easier said New owners than done. It is work in process. We are South African press journalism has still institutionalising our mandate. The undergone a revolution since democra- dearth of journalism skills in general, cy; most significant is the explosion in and in tabloid journalism in particular, popularity of the tabloid genre. makes the ride rough. Johncom Media, now Avusa, This is compounded by resistance to bought New Africa Publications in change. Old habits die hard. Expecting August 2004. It was back to the draw- seasoned journalists who honed their ing board with the new owners. skills on the field of battle – either cover- They subsequently re-launched ing the June 16 1976 uprisings and after- Sowetan as a popular, racy tabloid on math or capturing the turbulent 1980s – November 12 2004. to suddenly feel at home producing “light Reader research had indicated the stuff” about celebrities they even resent, newspaper’s tired diet of politics and proved a tall order. It was also a painful

164 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE 7

HOW WE DID IT

exercise. Inevitably, there was blood-let- mandate: they too must live and ting: jobs were shed and people who did breath it, otherwise you end up with not like working on the new product left. a different newspaper whenever Sadly, although there was an element you are not on duty. of good riddance, we also lost people The task of repositioning an iconic with valuable skills. The brain drain has brand such as Sowetan becomes even been debilitating. more daunting if you did not come from within the ranks. To survive and Advice thrive, you must have a thick skin and My advice to anybody contemplating be prepared do deal with rejection. taking on such a mammoth task as re- You will be the object of people’s launching a newspaper and leading it in contempt for a company that is seen as a different direction is: fiddling with a sacred institution. To • Don’t do it unless you have lots of say this does not mean legacy issues are energy and are willing to sacrifice irrelevant. It would be foolhardy to your personal life even more than is mistake readers’ desire for change and expected of any journalist. new things to mean you can totally • Do not be a bull in a china shop. disregard what came before you. Recognise your own limitations and The Sowetan reader might yearn appreciate that you do not know it all. for change, but there is a limit to the Defer to your colleagues. amount of deviation he or she is willing • Credible research is vital. It will help to take from the path charted by the you produce a saleable newspaper. great Percy Qoboza, Joe Latakgomo, However, research is not a substitute Aggrey Klaaste and Joe Thloloe, with for an editor’s wisdom – combined whom our readers still associate the with readers telling you whether you newspaper. are on the right track or not. It would be wonderful to have your • You should articulate your vision own core team, unencumbered by fond clearly and pursue it clinically and memories of a glorious past under pre- ruthlessly. vious regimes. Then you could ensure • Buy-in from your lieutenants is cru- you achieve the twin objectives of elim- cial. They need to internalise your inating resistance to change and infus- ing the newspaper with the necessary skills and enthusiasm to carry out your mandate. It is vital to bear in mind that organisations do not fail because everybody working in them is bad. Institutional memo- ry is important … but only insofar as it can be harnessed to inform the future.

Involving their readers in the new-look Sowetan.

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 165 Communicating through change

Paddi Clay You have two priority target markets Head of the Avusa you need to communicate with profes- Pearson journalism sionally and regularly: your readers or audience and your producers or journal- training programme ists. If you’re taking your newsroom through a change process, which is almost a given today, additional com- or reporters and their editorial munication opportunities and channels Fmanagers, “interpersonal contact may be required. and face-to-face communication still As Conrad and Poole point out: “The seems to be the preferred way of com- greater the uncertainty the greater the municating with staff, especially when need for direct, intensive communication it comes to difficult issues”, the Sanef and many adjustments.” skills audit phase 2 noted. Communication should not be con- But is this communication happen- fined to diary conference, e-mail, chance ing in your newsroom? There’s a good encounters in the lift or those formal chance the smoking space – an entire- meetings everyone hates. Interpersonal ly informal channel which you might and informal communcation can be also never enter – is the major source of be promoted through spatial design – information for your staff. which is why newsroom planning is a big

MORE INFO References and reading list:

• Bressers, B. and Meeds, R. 2007. new media and old media: Seven obser- Newspapers and their online editions: vations of convergence as a strategy for Factors that influence successful integra- best practices in media organizations. tion. WJMCR 10 May 2007. The International Journal on Media www.scripps.ohiou.edu/wjmcr/vol10/10- Management. Vol. 5. No 11. b.html. Accessed 7/11/07. • Mumford, MD et al. 2002. Leading • Conrad, C and Poole, M.S. 2002. creative people: orchestrating expertise Strategic organizational communication and relationships. The Leadership in a global economy, 5th ed., Fort Worth, Quarterly 13. pp.705 – 750. Tx. Harcourt. • Saksena, S. and Hollifield, C.A., US • Fisher, H. Developing media managers Newspapers and the development of for convergence: a study of theory and online editions, The International Journal practice for managers of converged on Media Management. pp.75 – 84 newsrooms. www.jour.sc.edu/news/con- • Beck, J. and Yeager, N. 1996. Moving vergence/issue18.html . Accessed beyond team myths, training and develop- 23/11/07. ment, March 1996. • Killebrew, K.C. 2002. Culture creativity • Singer, J. 2004. Strange bedfellows? and convergence: managing journalists in The diffusion of convergence in four news a changing information workplace. The organizations, Journalism Studies, Vol. 5, International Journal on Media Number 1. Management, Vol. 5 – No.1. pp. 39-46. • Steyn, E,; De Beer, A. S., and Steyn, • Lawson-Borders, G. 2003.Integrating T.F.J. 2005. Sanef skills audit phase 2.

166 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE 7

AS I SEE IT

Low-tech communication in a changing environment: the suggestion box and a whiteboard for reminders. issue when it comes to integrated news- Continually having to defer to man- rooms. agement above you for details does This link with proximity is borne out your image no good. by research done by Jane Singer, who When there’s a crisis, or gossip is quotes a news manager saying: “When doing the rounds, communicate even journalists sit ‘elbow to elbow’ proximity more frequently. breeds collegiality not contempt.” There’s nothing more embarrassing Digital tools such as Live Messenger, than your staff reading about coming wikis, blogs or bulletin boards can all be changes in someone’s column or an used in addition to or as an alternative to industry magazine before you’ve even face-to-face communication. talked to them. In integrated newsrooms, LCD Communication in this Web 2.0 screens should not be for the sports era cannot simply be one way. Create fanatics, but a means of keeping everyone your own opportunities for staff to in touch with what is happening on the feed back to you and don’t leave it up website or the latest ratings or readership to the maligned HR climate survey. An information. old-fashioned suggestion box, or occa- It’s also important that you prepare sional lunchtime chats with your sen- and plan for any formal meeting. How ior people, not to talk about stories or you communicate, particularly in formal operational issues but to find out what meetings, can impact on how you are they’re thinking and what the journal- perceived as a leader. ists they manage are thinking and are You need to know who your stake- concerned about, will keep you in holders are and who the difficult people touch. are that you need to win over. Think Creative people, and that is hope- about the outcome you want from the fully what you have around you, need meeting and strategise how you are going to feel empowered and must be made to achieve it. Anticipate some of the ques- to feel part of any change you are going tions and get your facts to hand. to lead them through.

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 167 CLARIFYING SOME TERMS Diverging into convergence ou have a favourite platform – print Like most things, these convergences are Yperhaps, maybe television. largely driven by economics – although Yet you’ve now had to belatedly often they are still some way off demon- embrace a newcomer. Possibly you’ve strating either significant profit or even even fallen in love with this wonderful serious savings. It’s that tenuous status web, and forgone your previous attrac- that heightens pressure on editors to tion. make convergent activity economically But now what’s going to happen when viable. mobile really makes an appearance? How do you stay faithful to journalism in Focus wider the midst of all this movement? Editors have to start stretching their What confounds your thinking is the focus to track this gamut of issues, while thick fog around the word “convergence”. at the same time figuring out the For a start, although the term simply specifics of your operation in regard to means the “coming together of things any single one of them. formerly apart”, it also encompasses a Few editorial leaders nowadays can multitude of highly different degrees of think only one platform (for example the integration. newspaper), even if they do (for now) Unless you stay fixated on the jour- give it priority attention. At the very least, nalism, an editor can easily get lost in a there’s a need to acknowledge an inter- forest of fuzzy language and too many connection (and sometimes tension) forks in the road. between outlets, and then work with a In addition, confusion occurs because holistic view. convergence can also apply at many lev- The good news is that there’s no holy els – macro to micro: grail or ultimate destination of achieving • You can get corporate convergence 100% convergence. Instead, there’s good (as in joint ventures) between telcom reason for a lot of heterogeneity to persist and media companies, for instance. within the broader merging. Or between, say, TV and newspaper And yet an editor also has to tran- companies. (Watch this space in SA). scend any “us” and “them” mentality • The branching out of a traditional between employees working in diverse print operation into internet publish- areas and coming from different media ing or audio/video or mobile, is models. another realm of convergence. • Reverse publishing from the web into Take note print is another instance. In managing all the complexities of con- • Production processes, where content vergence, the areas below need attention. is co-ordinated or shared. • Technology: editors have to have a • The skill-sets of previously segregated strong interest in the workings of specialist media practitioners – whatever Content Management whether reporter, news editor, or pro- System is used to underpin the con- duction personnel – can also be part vergence; you can’t delegate this con- of convergence. cern to techies. • Convergence can also refer media • Critical in a convergent context is the consumer devices: the camera-cell- need to manage resistant cultures and phone for instance, or computers narrow skill-sets bequeathed from being used to watch video broadcasts. one medium, and to re-engineer the • There’s a coming together of produc- routines that underpin these. er and consumer functions: what Dan • Most vital is the journalism: sophisti- Gilmor calls “the people formerly cated story-telling that runs across known as the audience” are increas- several platforms, and which may ingly generating media. include not just multiple media on

168 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE 7

the web (video, audio, photos around are best told in print, broadcast, web or a given story), but also fully fledged other formats … and when. Cross-promo- multi-media (a mix of text, audio, tion protocols need devising. visuals in an interactive graphic pack- One global trend in recent years has age where the sum is greater than the been towards reintegrating formerly parts). divergent web-operations into the It’s fatal to try and force the pace of con- purview of an overall newsdesk, and oper- vergence without continuing communi- ating within the same newsroom space. cation among the players, re-designing Technical, environmental, ergonomic, job descriptions, amending work flow special and cultural issues are thrown up processes, sorting out new deadline sys- by this. tems and creating guidelines for which “Social media” and user-generated platform comes first. content in the whole package is a major In all this, gradual or rapid multi- extra component needing to be taken on skilling of staff seems inevitable, even if board. core areas of focus and competence will New policies are needed for all this – continue. Journalists doing blogging is for example, on the degree of moderation, just one indication of this. the type and amount of hyperlinks in your content, staff blogging guidelines Strategic issues and audience interaction. How much you automate the re-publish- Editors have to lead the process, no ing and re-purposing of content for a dif- matter how technophobic or traditional- ferent platform is a management ist, or risk the future of your medium and challenge, not least because of the copy- even your own job. right issues implicated. Embrace it by working closely with A distinct challenge is pre-purposing, innovators and early adopters in the which entails advance organising to cover newsroom. These are the personnel who a big story in terms of how the full bou- will help you to evolve workable models quet of platforms can be best exploited. and diffuse convergence at the coalface. It’s a matter of planning which aspects – Guy Berger

HINTS What makes it easier or harder Enablers for Complicators making for ‘easy’ convergence ‘difficult’ convergence

It’s made central to organisation’s strategy Not central: secondary or an afterthought There is committed and focused leadership Other leadership priorities A culture of innovation and risk-taking “Always done it this way” Co-ordinating structure No co-ordinating structure Same ownership Different ownership Same values Different values Aligned systems and processes Systems not aligned Past successes together Previous problems or no relationship Cultures flexible or similar Cultures not flexible or similar Co-located Located some distance apart (adapted from Gentry, 2004, cited in Quinn, S. & Filak, V.F. 2005. Convergent journalism: an introduction: writing and producing across media. Amsterdam: Elsevier)

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 169 Challenges of New Media

Judy Sandison the SABC’s 082 152 audio news-on- Editor: new media, phones service or that cellphone net- SABC News works would themselves look at producing their own content, such as Safaritel in Kenya? The edges are getting blurred. But one key challenge in every newsroom remains providing a relevant and cred- he changing media landscape in ible product that the end-user per- Tterms of new technologies and new ceives to have value. consumer habits is impacting on the way newsrooms are run. Leadership anew Factors driving growth in new These trends have thrown up new media include: leadership challenges: • The growing use, by 18- to 35-year- • To keep pace with the rapid growth olds, of the internet for news. in new technology • Rapid growth in general internet • To adapt content to the medium usage. • To be responsive to the changing • The cellphone “revolution” in needs of users Africa. • To remain competitive and cost • The growing need for 24-hour effective, and generate new rev- “news on demand”. enue streams. With these market forces at play for Pioneering new media editors must new forms of “news on the run”, the now: pressure is on for news producers to • Be entrepreneurs, facilitators and provide users with news on a variety of leaders platforms and in various formats, to • Still meet the more traditional keep the appetites for news feed via managerial requirements of their both “push” and “pull” technologies. organisations News consumers have also become • Retain consumer trust in the cred- more savvy ... with ever-widening ibility of the product choices of where to source the news • Be open to different and unusual they want first. partnerships. The challenge is to provide fresh, Journalists themselves have to relevant, accurate news in an almost become more multi-skilled and continuous news stream in single or accountable. Team leaders need to be multi-media formats, while still cater- facilitators, not autocrats; teams have ing for the more traditional user in the to be results-oriented and add to their form of fixed-time news bulletins or skills base daily in order to provide cus- products. tomised, personalised, 24-hour news and information. Don’t wait Markets are widening as low-tech- Newsroom leaders cannot afford to nology tools such as wind-up battery wait or they’ll be left behind – they chargers for cell phones and WAP- need to explore potential niched new enabled phones make the internet media opportunities while still run- accessible to many more across Africa. ning their traditional news operations. Managers need to shape and grow Who could have predicted that a new products with their teams, be broadcaster’s arena would now encom- directly accountable, provide strong pass cellphone technologies such as training and support, and share regu-

170 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE 7

HOW I SEE IT

Cellphone billboards in Uganda are symptomatic of the spread of the medium. lar communication and feedback. tunities, is vital, as are regular “tweak- The manager or editor needs to be a ing” of the products/services and rad- strong driver who makes things happen: ical changes when required Use be results-oriented and decisive in audience research, monitor output; selecting suitable team members and get feedback from the marketplace. putting things in place. Do not forget to manage upwards: promote awareness in top manage- Bigger picture ment of the needs of news as a “busi- Issues such as the pros and cons of total ness”. or partial integration into the newsroom Ensure fast decision-making on need to be addressed while keeping new policy/strategy matters. Keep momentum going related to the bigger them informed on progress and new picture. While being responsive to special developments. Be open to new leads new media needs, team members must and ideas. be encouraged to be self-starters. And while managing all these Synergies with other newsroom teams developments, always remember: within your media house are vital. • To balance the commercial and New team dynamics must be man- public interest aged as part of the broader newsroom. • Promote synergies between old Each leader must play both a strategic and new media and operational role. • Communicate and give feedback Maintaining a decentralised and flex- • Identify and harness any “spare” ible operation, responsive to new oppor- capacity.

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 171 The integrated newsroom

Ray Hartley writing, video production and photogra- Editor of The phy were specialisations with their own Times disciplines and special skills. The second major decision was to have a totally open plan workspace with NO offices – not even for the editor – showing our intention to be a workplace that prized constant communication he Times newsroom was designed higher than the status attached to having Tfrom scratch by the editorial team an office. after much discussion about the ideal Content managers sit together in a workflow for an integrated newspaper hub and are able to communicate with and online operation. each other easily at any time. The first big decision we took was These moves were crucial in sending to totally integrate photographic, mul- a signal that we were creating a new timedia and print journalists by creat- newsroom culture. ing what we called “pods”. However, for the new generation of The idea was to have a writer, video journalists, born in the digital age, there producer and photographer working are few challenges. They live convergent on a beat sitting together at a worksta- lifestyles and are promiscuous when it tion. This is quite a radical departure comes to their personal use of content from the traditional newsroom. channels. We actively sought out and It also made a statement about the hired young staff for this reason. equal status of these three distinct With the more senior staff coming out roles. Crucially, it acknowledged that of print backgrounds, the largest chal-

The Dispatch newsroom and its new design, inspired by the UK Telegraph. A central hub situates online and print editors together, with ‘spokes’ running off into the rest of the floor grouping the various departments together. This is a slightly different approach to that of The Times.

172 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE 7

HOW WE DID IT BIGGER WEB 2.0 PICTURE All things digital

igital media content can be converted lenge was to reset their “publication Dto different forms (eg text to audio) default position”, if you can call it that, and sent out in diverse packages, through to the 24-7 operation online. various channels, to scores of platforms. Their gut instinct, learned through That’s given millions access to content the intense competition between print as consumers and producers - hence the titles, is to hold back everything for explosion of content out there in general. print and to keep it as secret as possi- Information is less and less a scarce ble until then. commodity. What’s scarce is attention. So the most obvious sign of success Competition now is with all kinds of in achieving change is being first with institutions and individuals who become the news online – and doing it with media-tised via Internet publishing. your own news staff. This immediate- It used to be that a media company ly places you ahead of the competition operated most of its own information who rely heavily on news agency copy. gathering, editing, packaging and dis- For us a key indicator is whether or semination, all for a fairly loyal audience. not we have multimedia to punt in our This integration is being dis-articulated: daily paper alongside our print stories. • Information gathering This indicates clearly whether or not Besides reporters, there’s “citizen jour- the teams are working together. nalists”, “user-generated content” and On multi-skilling, we chose not to “imports” of content from elsewhere go this route because we want to (eg YouTube via embedded links). develop quality: in writing, multime- • Editing dia and pictures. We would like every- Look at increased outsourcing (eg of sub- one to attain a foundation level of bing), and involvement of audiences in knowledge about how other streams rating and ranking what content plays work, but we want them to focus on prominently online. In a wiki, content is their own skills. crowd-edited ... without end. Having said that, the ability to • Packaging record digital sound for use online in Third-party aggregators like Google bun- podcasts or to take pictures in a crisis dle media content in different guises. situation is encouraged. Individuals and institutions “mash” it In priorising stories for specific into their own published packages. platforms, and managing staff deploy- • Distribution ment, we took a strong position. Think RSS feeds, content placed on other Web must come first because it’s websites, and what’s circulated by users. the 24-7 medium. Once this is the • Consumption default position for filing breaking Consumption online is driven through news, it becomes easy to select the links (via search engines, RSS and social exceptions to be held back for print. network recommendations). Audiences All employees are expected to work for are opportunistic and transitory. all platforms. It’s in all our perform- • Advertising ance documents. News audiences that shift online do When it comes to training, we take retain some loyalty to old media brands the view that multimedia journalism is now in cyberspace. But advertising is not an entirely new discipline. Here the migrating to news sites to the same fastest learning has taken place. There extent. Advertisers have their own online are regular reviews of videos, usually platforms; search engines offer highly by an experienced producer from out- focused targeting and measurable side. Other than that, training has returns. Subscription revenues for online been very much on the job. news have failed. But the billing culture of cellphones has potential. – Guy Berger

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 173 NEW WORLD EMERGING The people are coming ...

Blogging be doing what are often called “acts of Editors are increasingly dealing with out- journalism”. siders who blog on the website of your Part of the ethos of public involve- media house. You probably have staff ment is a context of moving away from who do likewise and who may also main- content being treated only as a one-way tain blogs elsewhere. broadcast, to it becoming a dynamic and Here are some guidelines – drawn in continuing conversation. part from the BBC. Although just one percent of a site’s regular users will usually be active con- Staff who blog should be: tributors in the various forms, their input • Encouraged, because it helps enrich can add enormous value to a website. and diversify the content on offer. All should be clearly signalled as com- • Sensitive to possible conflicts of inter- munity input, and be limited by clearly est like disclosing confidential in- posted parameters about hate-speech company matters. and defamation. • Required to indicate, where appropri- Special guidelines can be set out for ate, that the blog expresses personal those contributing “citizen journalism” views, not those of the company. (whether articles, images, video or blog • Advised to avoid taking up a position postings): on controversial subjects where this • Contributions need to meet the com- can be seen as compromising their pany’s standards of accuracy, fairness journalistic work. and editorial policy. With blogs, it’s not content that’s king but • Would-be contributors should not conversation around that content. So risk their safety to collect content. staff who blog need to be responsive to • They should respect people’s privacy – public comments on their company sites and where appropriate, may need to as part of the job, and they need to get demonstrate that they have the con- time to do so. sent of the people featured in their contributions. Outside bloggers: • Citizen journalists may be asked to This kind of user-generated content is verify factual accuracy, and convince a one part of a wider field of public contri- media house they have not manipu- bution to the media, including citizen lated or pirated digital images. journalism and general participation. • They should declare any vested inter- Guidelines here can be the same as those ests (such as content collected on for citizen/community contributors. behalf of a lobby group). • They should know that the media Citizen/community contributions house may be required by law to pass A distinction should be made between materials to the police, even the iden- general community participation and tity of the contributor. citizen journalism. • The contributor will have to cede “Participation” includes things like defined rights – exclusive or partial – ranking content, commenting on articles to the media house to publish the or blogs, and submitting community materials. information (like anti-crime forum meet- • Payment for such contributions is at ing times). the discretion of the company. “Citizen journalism”, on the other As part of “public journalism”, a media hand, entails reportage. Users of news house can offer online or workshop- website blogs may not always be doing based classes to help amateur journalists journalism with this technology and do a more professional job and enhance genre, but equally they may sometimes the quality and uptake of contributions.

174 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE 7

On the other hand, there are also commenting on outside blogs, overseeing many cases in the US where amateurs, keywords and links to relevant content precisely because they were untrained, and getting employees involved as well. have picked up on major news which was As one observer noted: community overlooked within the routines and management means keeping conversa- expectations of professional journalists. tions going and avoiding the develop- It’s not essential, therefore, that all ment of virtual “ghost towns”. citizen journalists need to be trained to Another duty is to act as neighbour- be the equivalents of traditional free- hood cop and curtail “trolls”: disruptive lancers, even if courses and critical feed- people who harass and alienate others. back might make sense with particular Editorial decisions need to be made contributors. about whether community management includes monitoring and moderating for Social networks quality, language use and/or legal issues. More and more people are using the These matters can have substantial internet to join communities, and astute implications for human resources. Many editors will find ways to coalesce some of sites seek to avoid this issue by disclaim- these loose groupings around their media ing direct responsibility and instead pro- content niches. viding ways for people to report But all viable communities need lead- “inappropriate” content which can then ers and systems, and a media house has be investigated and possibly taken down. to contribute to these functions if its Best practice is that community man- hosting of networks is to succeed. agement is not just restricted to online It’s probably impossible to create a interaction, but that the staff most community (local or interest-based) that involved in this function also attend, and does not exist in some latent form, which even convene, events in real life that are also means a medium cannot impose relevant to those people who participate. itself as some kind of executive mayor on a community. Crowd sourcing The point is that a social network Whereas citizen journalism is usually involves a media house communicating initiated by individual members of the with an audience, and facilitating their public, “crowd sourcing” tends to be at intra-communication ... not just commu- the initiative of the media house and is nicating to them. an appeal for mass, rather than individ- ual, involvement in newsgathering. Community management At minimum, it can be a form of Some media abroad have appointed polling people for their opinions. It can community managers to be responsible also be a way to canvass interest in a par- for servicing online social networks, ticular story. although it is also often seen as impor- And in a celebrated case of investigat- tant that newsroom staff also contribute ing sewers at Fort Myers in the US, to what has been called “community gar- “crowd sourcing” successfully elicited dening”. people’s experiences which were then The role of community management incorporated into published content (see (perhaps spread across a number of www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/sec- employees, fulfilling various roles) means tion?Category=CAPEWATER). listening to niche communities around While this kind of involvement is your content, giving feedback to the edi- powerful, in some cases an editor may tor and staff, acknowledging and engag- wish to keep an investigation confiden- ing with the people participating in tial rather than reveal it through “crowd communities, tracking significant trends, sourcing”.

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 175 CHANGES IN NEWS CYCLES Build a bouquet

What do you put online? he rhythm and form of editorial out- Online publishing or broadcasting Tput continues to change. should not be an afterthought, fed In the US, Associated Press has a only with scraps from the main model of “1-2-3 filing”. This starts with a table. It needs serious exploitation news alert headline for breaking news, because a time will inevitably come usually followed by step two as a short when this offspring is likely to present-tense story predominantly for become your major platform. web and broadcasters. The third step is By then, you need to have built to add detail and format the content for your brand and engaged an audi- different news platforms, for example as ence. a textual news analysis, a multi-media George Brock, 2007 president of piece … or nothing if the story doesn’t the World Editors Forum, has warrant it. warned of a large disconnect This kind of approach has been elab- between the thinking about the orated by Paul Bradshaw who points to future newsroom and the actual two dimensions: speed and depth. preparation, training and resources For speed, content can be generated that editorial organisations seem to and distributed as: be giving to this project. • An alert (mobile, e-mail) So, human and other resources • A draft (such as a blog) should be invested in online. • An article/package (print, audio Indeed, such online activities can and/or video forms) also enrich your primary platform For depth, the following levels of com- through “reverse publishing” where plexity can be mounted: appropriate. • Context added (hyperlink, and However, the two realms of tra- embedded content via widgets) ditional and new do need to be co- • Analysis/reflection (an article/pack- ordinated. For instance, many age in various formats, based on media houses abroad are moving to research and assessment) a “web first” policy, not just with • Interactivity (flash, chats, forums, breaking news alerts, but even with wikis) scoops and exclusives. • Customisation (RSS, ratings, social This is a key issue that needs to networking) be decided and then reviewed from Bradshaw acknowledges that this dia- time to time. mond model (see opposite) is not neces- Another important issue for edi- sarily a linear one, and several of the tors in the transition to online is story treatments he describes can unfold that content on this platform needs simultaneously, depending on how a to be broken up into screenfuls newsdesk judges the story at hand. The and/or streams. point, however, is the many options pos- In some cases it may include the sible in an era of digital information. story behind the story: how the con- Editors need to give leadership on tent was created. these issues. In addition, there’s the opportu- nity to configure or reconfigure it so Hyperlinks as to include a fun or game element. Among the policies needed is one on – Guy Berger hyperlinks. Many companies over the years have decreased the use of this con- tent-enriching capacity, especially in regard to links pointing to rival media. But things are changing as the media industry begins to close ranks in the face

176 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE 7

Paul Bradshaw’s ‘news diamond’ Speed

Alert

Draft

Article/package

Analysis/reflection Depth Depth Context

Interactivity

Customisation

User control

The many options possible in an era of digital information. Discuss ‘A model for the 21st century newsroom’ on Bradshaw’s blog: http://onlinejournalismblog.com of competition for other forces online. As over.” Instead, you have to free up your we have seen, the New York Times and content to follow the audiences and be Washington Post have agreed to collabo- where they are. rate in linking to each other. And more Increasingly, people come to websites fundamentally there is the point, as web only indirectly – through various back expert Dave Winer states: “People come doors and outside aggregators of content back to places that send them away.” (often non-human – like Google News). That means: Online-only visuals • Providing RSS feeds so that people Another issue about online content is can check your headlines, and visit the option to provide data in diverse for- particular stories, without the schlep mats, especially in various visualisations of having to visit your site (or, more that cannot easily be done on other plat- likely, not) to check if there’s any- forms. For instance: maps showing crime thing of specific interest to consume. hotspots, interactive graphs and graph- • Ensuring search engine optimisation ics, geo-located cases of xenophobic vio- (SEO) so your online content gets to lence. These are instances when the full users when they do a Google search. visual and interactive potential of online • Having a presence in social networks can really be exploited. like Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, Twitter and their South African Be out there equivalents like Myvideo.co.za. Commentator Kevin Anderson has writ- • Providing widget links so others can ten: “The day of building a website and easily embed your content in their expecting everyone to come to you is blogs. – Guy Berger

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 177 WEB 2.0 Unpacking the jargon

eb 2.0 is the term informally used where relevant information finds indi- Wto describe the evolution of the web viduals, not vice versa. An example is the in three respects: World Association of Newspapers’ edi- tors weblog, which constitutes a 1. Metadata or tagging resourceful community of editors. It’s all about the internet changing from More broadly, though, the social net- being a static documents resource into a work phenomenon means for editors database with metadata about informa- that there is a new force in society that tion. This transformation enables unpre- takes the place of your editorial decisions cedented linkages and new meanings to about what’s relevant to an audience that emerge. Here, keywords or “tags” have once relied on you. These communities become fundamental to the architecture now decide whether to highlight your of the internet. These labels on content offerings or not – and you have to find are what enable people, for instance, to ways to be valuable to them. find Africa photos on Flickr, or allow your website to send out very specific Mobile media content feeds. This is the early phase of Most South Africans will experience the what is dubbed the Semantic Web, where internet on cellphones long before they meaningful connections can be derived have regular access on desk- or laptop from online content in interoperable computers. Millions are already doing so (“open”) formats between different sites. in the form of the enclosed service pro- vided by Mixit. 2. Read-write web But the question is whether mobile Whereas the web used to be one with a devices will really become instruments substantial division between users as for more than interpersonal conversation producers and consumers of content, or messaging – that is, also become a increasingly members of the “audience” means to receive and produce journal- are adding to the mix through com- ism. The answer is in the affirmative. ments, posting photographs and setting On the hardware level, the form fac- up blogs. Many people are now living a tor of small screens is not really a deter- lot of their lives online in public. rent. And as regards software, there is 3. Social networks Google’s Linux-based and open source This refers to people (higher numbers of operating system, called Android, that women than men) using the internet not will span numerous makes of mobile only to connect to electronic content, devices. but also to other people such as friends Once South Africa begins digital and family, and strangers. Many social broadcasting to the new generation of connections are also often around, and receiver-ready cellphones, the public will about, this content – whether it is become accustomed to seeing these through games, debates, re-publishing, devices as media tools. appropriations and “mash-ups”. The mobile model will also open a This social relationship in part whole new market for location-based replaces isolated surfing or searching for information services, and probably sub- relevant information. Accordingly, your stantial audio options, that forward- communities recommend content to you looking editors can begin to anticipate. via utilities like Twitter (micro-blog mes- Because the public is acculturated to pay- sages online or on phone), e-mail, links ing for telephony, a business model could from their own blogs, or on the pages include a mix of subscriptions and adver- within social network sites. tising revenue sufficient to enable the The result is a surfacing of content, content costs to be covered.

178 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE 7

Content Management Systems 4 Copyright: Does your system allow As editor, you’ll probably find a content for digital rights management – and is management system (CMS) in place that this driven by an agreed policy of intel- predates you. However, any CMS should lectual property among stakeholders be regarded as an iterative process, concerning both current information and rather than a final product. archives? For instance, at the Grocott’s Mail the paper’s open source system, named 5 Enterprise-wide IT: Can this be Nika, began only with workflow manage- integrated so as to seamlessly access data ment – then evolved to articulating the from, for example, your switchboard, or newspaper content with a website. The to export comments on your blogs to third phase will give Web 2.0 functional- customer relations management soft- ity (blogs, networks, comment func- ware? tions), and the fourth will include mobile, audio and video components. It 6 From a content management point will probably need the ongoing addition of view, you will need to guide the of features in response to the emergence technical side. For instance in terms of: of new functionalities and externalities • Helping you figure out the content (like interfaces to receive and publish strategy of how to play online or to video from phones). cellular … and back. To keep up-to-date and make tech • Deciding what will be automated, work for you (rather than vice versa), you versus what will be customised. need to initiate action for updates or • Thinking ahead – for instance, you alterations to your own CMS, to suit the can’t easily automate feed streams via changing editorial process. SMS at a later date, if you haven’t Some considerations: been storing your content data with appropriate metadata keywords and 1 Workflow: Does your CMS allow classifications. proper version control and electronic performance monitoring? Are there too 7 Dynamism: How fixed/dumb is the many clicks before a story is completed? system as compared to one that is intel- Do word-processing and photo-editing ligent and able to allow flexibility and interfaces work as seamlessly as they change according to users’ actual pat- should? If not, try to get them revised. terns?

2 Knowledge management: Is the 8 Your software system: Many news- system optimum at enabling the genera- papers today are using open-source soft- tion and capture of the institution’s ware CMS’s, especially Drupal. Examples knowledge of processes, systems and per- are the New York Observer, Al Quds, Die sonal learning? Is your intranet up to Welt, Die Zeit. speed in terms of dissemination, and does it include style-guides and adminis- 9 Finding free tools: Are there tools trative forms, and internal blogs? “in the cloud” that you can make use of? Can you use Wordpress for blogs to feed 3 Database/archive: Is your database into your site, Twitter to feed in SMS, set up for maximum searchability of text Youtube to host your own and other rel- and images (internally, and even exter- evant video, and Skype to do podcasting? nally depending on to policy), and have How about Ning.com or Google-Friends you given sufficient thought to what to provide at least interim support for metadata fields are required for this to your social network experiments? happen? – Guy Berger

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 179 CITIZEN JOURNALISM Whose side are you on?

o you support the Professionalistas or cede that the eruption of user-generated Dthe Populists? The career journalists content does deepen the public sphere – or amateurs? Here are the arguments: but that doesn’t make it “journalism” in Harden D. Pro: Part-time and semi- most cases. skilled people can’t do the job, and the Citizen J: Our brand of journalism is idea that they can is only of benefit to the often closer to truth and justice than so- bosses who think they can source content called “journalists” in state-controlled without having to pay for it. But it takes media. But basically, our work should be investment in beat expertise to report on taken as complementary to, rather than complexities, have inside-insight and dig competition with, mainstream reporters. out scandals – and this won’t be done by Harden D. Pro: There’s no clear differ- “citizen journalists”. ence between what you do and a student Citizen J: Grassroots people can send who thinks his or her Facebook posts in newsworthy information, even if we amount to journalism. can’t always do the legwork that pro’s do. Citizen J: Community participation is Harden D. Pro: Citizen content not automatically incompatible with requires extensive checks and editing – journalism. Anyone with a connection which we don’t have time to do. You are can do journalism on Facebook, a blog, a not in our core business supply chain. Twitter stream, or by giving content to Citizen J: Well, you can’t stop the the mainstream as a freelancer would. trend. People want to see their voices in And, there’s enough mainstream content the mainstream; you’ll be marginalised if – like lifted chunks of press releases – that you resist. Some of us do secure recogni- barely counts as journalism. tion for our work – certainly we don’t Harden D. Pro: But many of you peo- usually do it for the money. The industry ple seem to target us en bloc, presuming should appreciate and value this energy. yourselves to be a 5th Estate watching us. Harden D. Pro: Sorry, but your output It seems you want to supplant us. is amateurish, opinionated, unsubstanti- Citizen J: A dose of your own medi- ated. cine? But many people – audiences and Citizen J: Your mainstream journal- amateur producers – are unhappy with ism claims independence, but the reality the state of the mainstream. It is a differ- is you being fed agendas by politicians or ent question whether our journalism can corporate interests – or your own col- address your problems, but the main- leagues are playing political games. stream should look to improve itself with Harden D. Pro: Accepting the stand- or without competition from us. ing of citizen contributions reduces jour- Harden D. Pro: I accept some citizen nalism to the lowest common journalists do investigate, check their denominator: – every Joe Soap is then facts, keep independent. But the real treated as an equal of, say, a prize-win- value to me is that you put information ning photojournalist. into circulation, which can be mined for Citizen J: At least we are usually nuggets by us traditional journalists. explicitly advocacy-oriented, whereas Citizen J: No one realistically believes your journalism is skewed to status quo traditional journalism can or will be elite sources, and ignores grassroots replaced with citizen journalism. But we views. We fill a gap, especially at the keep you on your toes and add to quality community level, because the main- content. And increasingly there are stream can’t afford or does not bother to hybrids possible, like “pro-am” collabora- send reporters there. Your people miss tions and “open source journalism”. Try serious stories and sometimes have pre- some of these exciting possibilities The conceived – and wrong – ideas about basic difference is that you are no longer what audiences want to know. secluded kings of content. Harden D. Pro: Everyone can con- – Guy Berger

180 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE 7

HOW WE DID IT Blogging

Andrew Trench Deputy editor of the Daily Dispatch and DispatchOnline editor

ur first tentative steps into blog- Oging were in mid-2007 when we started working seriously on relaunch- ing our Dispatch website, which hadn’t had a makeover in about 10 years. My initial idea was to start a blog At last count we had 13 blogs run- built on the Dispatch brand, to play ning within Dispatch. But the two that around with it as a medium and, most I find most exciting, in how they have importantly, use it to start getting a broadened our traditional horizons, better idea of our online audience. are Epozini and Bloos-Kaap Blues. Andrew Sherry, a deputy managing As their names suggest, one is in editor for online news at US Today, Xhosa, the other in Afrikaans. Epozini inspired the idea at a workshop in is a hub of debate and discussion in a Johannesburg where I asked him how language we do not traditionally pub- we could put together a quality online lish. Who would have thought we offering without millions to invest. would now be a publication of English, “Use blogs” he replied: they are easy Afrikaans and Xhosa? Thanks to blogs. to operate, they empower writers – and Our blogs are now so important are useful as a radar to “get out in that we run our dynamic news content front of your readers”. So Dispatches on our new website through a feed off from the Trench was born. our Dispatch Now breaking news blog, I used the blog in the beginning to and run a feed of comments from our talk about things going on in the paper, blogs on the home page. Readers are decisions we were making and what we now an integral part of our content. were thinking regarding online plans. Blogs have extended the role news- It had a great response from the papers have always had in a communi- start – as if there were hordes of read- ty. They make our journalism better, ers who had been standing behind our paper more transparent and locked doors dying to talk with us. accountable to its readers – and we are The experience was the most invig- learning more about them every day. orating of my career. Here was an We also get dozens of story tips. opportunity for journalists to speak The most important lesson is to directly to readers, for this to be instan- trust your staff to speak to your readers taneously a two-way street and for the directly. We had a quick meeting of our relationship between reader and news- bloggers, decided on some basic rules paper to deepen in ways we had never and let our bloggers do their thing. imagined. I rapidly became a blogging Sometimes I see some blog posts by evangelist within our newspaper. a young reporter that make my toenails Anyone who thinks this is a medi- curl. But, you know what? I’ve yet to um for the young, think again. One of see a complaint from an online reader. our most successful bloggers is 60- Meanwhile, our reporters who are something Investigations Editor Eddie blogging are writing more than ever Botha, whose blog is a must-read. before – and that can’t be bad.

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 181 STAFF AND UNIONS Extra work and other multi-issues

ho here is paying their staff extra ing news headlines, a short story for the “Wto work across multiple plat- web, a longer one for print, the opinion forms?” a speaker recently asked 35 edi- piece, plus carry a digital camera and file tors and media managers from all over photos or video, do a short radio com- Africa at a Sol Plaatje Media Leadership ment and update a blog – with continu- Institute meeting in Kampala. ous deadlines. Are they now “churning”? Not one raised a hand. But journalists are rarely just con- Many editors around the world are cerned about being paid fairly for work currently expected to deliver more and done: there are a variety of interrelated new kinds of content with fewer or the spin-offs. same resources, partly due to the market Here are the issues that will be worry- imperative to go to web and multimedia ing your journalists, which editors need without guaranteed advertising income to decide how to handle. for the new platforms, partly due to a loss of advertising revenue to new media. 1. More work And they have to do it immediately, Are journalists being asked to work more while continually adapting to fast than their 40-hour week, or just work changes in the media world. A headache faster? Is the need to interact more with for editors – and one often dealt with by readers, or to blog frequently, creating a having lower standards for web content. burden on reporters’ time? Can your At the same time, journalists are wor- overtime arrangements (extra pay or rying about their jobs – and one big time off) cover any extra hours worked? aspect of this is the extra work required. Do your performance agreements spell When this issue comes to a head, it out how much work a journalist is sometimes leads to renegotiation of con- expected to do? tracts, sometimes to stand-offs with unions and sometimes to discretionary 2. Extra responsibility salary increases for those individuals who If journalists are given different, or high- have taken on new tasks. er-level, responsibilities, this is usually a In many cases, media just rely on the grading issue. Can you upgrade those enthusiasm of journalists on their staff: who take this on? And how about those counting on ambitious volunteers to take who just take on more responsibility: can on the new work. you re-negotiate contracts or perform- It is a lot clearer where there is a sep- ance agreements? Is this an “operational arate digital operation from the original requirement” that workers cannot refuse, media: those people are employed to do or a change in working conditions? that work, and then journalists from the other media (the newspaper or maga- 3. New skills zine) who also write for web, either do it Are journalists being properly trained voluntarily or get paid as a freelancer. (formally and on the job) to take on new It is also clearer with freelancers: but tasks? Can you create training pro- their contracts need to state whether grammes to give them speed, competen- their work can be published on multiple cy and confidence? Do you need any platforms or whether they are paid extra. journalists who do not master new skills The problem comes with bringing (such as writers who have no visual abil- web operations and multimedia into a ity to take photos) to still practise them? newsroom where previously content was Do you multi-skill all reporters, or spe- produced for one platform, with pre- cialise some, and to what extent? dictable deadlines. For example, a reporter covering a story previously 4. Lower quality wrote an article, sidebar and opinion If journalists are “churning”, is the qual- piece; now he/she may have to file break- ity of their work dropping? Can you find

182 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR MANAGING CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE 7

ways to ensure your journalists have cle or radio bulletin goes through, some time to boost their creativity and or are corners dangerously cut? avoid burn-out or boring “event-based” Newspaper articles usually go journalism? How will you still get good from journalist to news editor, to scoops, original writing and in-depth chief sub, to sub, to revise and to analysis while having to feed the 24- page proof – that’s five checks, and hour monster that is the internet? Is mistakes and legals still get in the this a problem for retention of good paper! Can you afford to have only staff? one check before a web item is posted, or can you put similar 5. Lack of clarity on job roles checking structures in place while There is no doubt the boundaries still ensuring speed? between media jobs are blurring more than before, though on small media Finding solutions such as community radio or papers Multi-media and multiple platforms this has always occurred. Do your are changing the lives of journalists. reporters now have to sub their Some will respond positively, own stories? Who writes the text realising they must adapt and for picture galleries? Does a learn to further their careers; technician end up writing headlines for others will want to stick to the job they web stories? Can you create guidelines on applied for in the first place. who has to do what, when? Some of these issues need to be nego- tiated with your staff as a whole, some 6. Lack of checks with unions and some with individuals. Are the stories, video, picture galleries or And some can be resolved by good com- podcasts put on the web, or headlines munication, consultation, training, sent out on mobile, going through the guidelines, planning and structuring the same set of checks that a newspaper arti- work. – Elizabeth Barratt

DEFINITION What is this ‘churnalism’?

It is not journalism. already published by others, thereby some- It is the rapid recyling of information times republishing lies, manipulation, or which is not properly verified, often due to propaganda. the pressure on journalists to produce In South Africa this cannot yet be reports at great speed … or to a lack of will blamed on the pressures of internet report- to stick to personal and ethical choices. ing, but it was seen in how the media mass- In its most negative form, it is the prac- reported the incorrect fact that Judge Hilary tice of regurgitating material, rapidly and Squires had said there was a “generally cor- under pressure, from outside sources with- rupt relationship” between Schabir Shaik out checking, corroborating or investigating. and Jacob Zuma. In his book “Flat earth news”, British Unless editors are vigilant, there will be National Union of Journalists (NUJ) member many more such problems – exacerbated by and Guardian freelancer Nick Davies writes the pressures of 24/7 publishing. This is a that most UK journalists do not research or clear case of where change can threaten check information back against original important editorial values, unless media sources – especially in regard to the Iraq leaders underline the importance of the jour- war. They use second-hand material: stuff nalistic standards that need preserving.

THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR 183 “We don’t hire editors any more, we hire content strategists.

– Jack Griffin, president of Meredith Publishing, in keynote speech at the 2008 FOLIO: Publishing Summit (February 21 2008). ”

184 THE EXTRAORDINARY EDITOR