"Change is good. You first."

Are you having problems getting the print newsroom staff to embrace your "new media" effort? Are you having trouble with the new media staff’s collaborating n with the "old media" staff? If you are, there are many reasons why integrating old and new media can be such a problem. Look over the following hurdles many newsrooms are facing. Which ones do you need to overcome?

Logistical

The online newsroom is removed from the rest of the newsroom. There’s little opportunity for interaction. Copy flow minimizes potential interaction as files for the website come straight from composition with no need to coordinate with the newsroom.

Suggestions:

• BE THERE. Have at least a desk in the newsroom where you can do your work for part of the day. Being visible in the newsroom will help them understand what you are doing.
• Insinuate yourself into the flow of reporting and story development. (ie: establish a routine that calls in from journalists on a breaking story are patched into new media so the latest developments can be posted.)
• Go to the news meetings (and don’t just sit there, contribute and suggest – show them you have the same interests and journalistic thinking). Ask for a three-minute slot to tell them about projects you are working on.
• Encourage communication with the old / new media desk editors. (ie: have a routine evening call-in to the desk editors to see if there have been changes, additions to stories.)
• Socialize together.
• Make sure your news meetings are open to the newsroom, invite editors and reporters to hear about what new media is working on.
• Job switch. Have a print copy editor sit in new media for a month. Have a new media editor work the desk in the newsroom. Each will come back appreciating what the other does.

Technical

The technology used for creating the website is different than for the newspaper. The print newsroom doesn’t understand and/or doesn’t have access to the technology. Even if the old newsroom wanted to contribute, the technical setup would make it difficult.

Suggestions:

• Schedule classes to show what you do and how you do it – the anatomy of web publishing.
• Be involved in helping to spec out a new publishing system if your newsroom is changing.
• Be involved in other kinds of planning committees (ie: disaster planning), to make sure you understand their technology issues and that new media’s needs are well represented.
• Loan them technology -- share your toys, let them play, show them tricks.
• Hold splashy product launches – food is good, it brings folks in.
• Be aware of how your work affects them. What do they have to do differently for new media than before? Are there ways to simplify the process?

Cultural

Cultural differences abound. New media thrives on constant change, quick adaptation, a "try it - ditch it if it doesn’t work" attitude. The print newsroom needs stable operations, set procedures, and lives with a "this is the way we do it here" attitude.

Suggestions:

• Demonstrate that you do have the same journalistic values even in the "constant update" environment.
• Treat their stories with deference – uphold their standards.
• Have joint conversations about journalistic values and ethics.
• Invite their feedback about what you are doing. Listen to them. Show the benefits to them of what you are doing. (ie: Reaction to their stories in the forums.)
• Remind them that online publication of a story now qualifies for most contests.

Perceptual

New media staff is seen by the print newsroom as upstart, non-journalists speaking technobabble. Print journalists are seen by the new media staff as luddites with little to contribute.

• Socialize outside the office. Go to lunch with people from the newsroom. Be an ambassador.
• Put someone from new media in the newsroom even if just for a few hours a day. They’ll see you talk their language and have their concerns for the news product.
• Encourage them to be involved in the website. Talk to them about story packages. Let them know how they can contribute.
• Ask people to do things for you, but then do things for them.
• Review the system and see if there is a way to solve some of the logistical problems.
• Have some seasoned journalists come talk to the new media staff about the history and traditions of news-gathering at the organization.
• Use the intranet to let newsroom people know who the new media people are and what they do.

Attitudinal

When faced with new ways to produce and package news, the attitude is, "That’s not what we do and that’s not how we do it." The "We don’t have time to do the jobs we already have and you are just wanting to give us more to do" attitude is also a hurdle.

Suggestions:

• Figure out ways to help them at their jobs. You are often another copy-editing level and can frequently save them from some errors.
• Look for ways to incrementally improve processes that will make everyone’s work smoother, and be sure to show them the value.
• Instead of concentrating on how material gets from the newsroom to the website, look at the overall system and see how changes can improve work in both areas (developing calendar compilation software that makes it easier for people on the desk, for example).
• Help them to do their jobs better, more efficiently by sharing your expertise. For example, offer to give classes in doing searching on the web.

Historical

New media is not the first technological tsunami to hit the newsroom. Many people in the newsroom have been through the technological change wringer before and just don’t have the enthusiasm for it or the technology changes were badly handled.

Suggestions:

• Be conscious of the technology changes they have been through, and what their experience had been with them in the past. There are veterans of the move from hot to cold type, from back-shop layout to pagination, from one publishing system to another. These have disrupted their work. They probably didn’t get adequate training. They meet this new technology with some skepticism.
• Honor, as much as possible, the traditional terminology of the newsroom.
• Look at the past technological changes in the newsroom and chart how they improved operations (eventually) and what it took to get there.

Ethical

The ethical guidelines inherent to the print publication don’t always cover the situations found in online reporting. Distrust about the standards applied to the reporting and packaging can be a problem.

Suggestions:

• Have a brown bag lunch on ethical issues you’ve encountered.
• Seek their advice on different ethical concerns you may have.
• Make sure you know the ethics policies or guidelines that have been set out for the newsroom already. See how they fit into your operation.

Procedural

When the print staff is asked to do something new (ie: have their e-mail address on stories) procedures and guidelines for doing it are not developed. The process for getting copy to the online news desk may have some bumps or question marks. Lack of clarity about procedures and process can make the newsroom staff reluctant to jump in.

Suggestions:

• When adding new responsibilities, make sure they are clear about exceptions. (Do they have to personally answer each message? Is there an auto-reply they can use? )
• Don’t assume that people know the procedures – provide the training and the support they need when learning some new routines in their jobs.
• Do a story flow map. Track just what happens at each stage of the process. Where are there disruptions to the flow and how can changes make the flow better? Let them know the consequences of online not being in the flow.
• Some important procedures: a way to ensure that online is notified of changes to a story, photo flow.

Generational

The average age in many new media newsrooms is considerably lower than in the print newsroom. The ageism that sometimes exists on both sides can be an issue.

Suggestion:

• Bring a seasoned journalist onto the staff or ask one to be a liaison to new media.

Motivational

"Now you want us to do e-mail to our readers?!?!" "Panorama photography -- that’s not the kind of photojournalism we do." When the new idea just looks like more effort without giving them a sense of how it can enhance their work, there can be a motivation problem.

Suggestions:

• Understand what the real concerns are when the newsroom reacts negatively to a change in "the way we’ve always done it." See if there is a way to address those real concerns (is a clear policy needed, do they need to see exactly what something is or how it is done.)
• Don’t assume people understand the implications of a new procedure or that they understand that it will not change their routine too much to incorporate it into their work. Talk to them. Listen to them.

Schizophrenic

The news organization is in the business of selling web services to the community, touting it as a valuable information service. The same organization won’t put browser software on the PCs in the newsroom, because people would just "play around and waste time." Huh?

Suggestions:

• Educate the decision-makers who came up with this policy about the value and necessity of web access to journalists. Find out what they are REALLY concerned about and help find ways to make them comfortable.
• If people are using the web and wasting time, you’ve got a management problem, not an Internet problem.
• Make sure there are clear policies about Internet use in the newsroom.

Budgetary

"New media gets all the expensive toys." "They keep adding staff in new media and it has yet to make any profits." In news organizations where no one feels they have enough, the budget perceptions can add resentment.

Suggestions:

• Both the newsroom and the website (in most places) are cost centers. One provides the content, the other is working on the future – you need each other.
• This is somewhat facetious, but try out-whining them (but then start trying to see how you can both get some of what you need by combining forces).
• Give them a chance to see what you are doing, and the limitations under which you are operating.

Organizational

Job titles/descriptions in new media don’t correspond to print newsroom titles, people don’t understand who in new media is doing what. Sometimes the new media operation is an entirely separate company, even if the "old media" newsroom was interested in doing something online, there is no way organizationally to do it.

• Explain yourself. Have a new media open house and let people learn who you are, what you do, and how they can be involved.
• Have the online news department be part of the orientation program so new employees can learn about the operation.
• Create a new media FAQ. "I want to suggest a project to new media? How do I do that?" and then lay out the answer: who to talk to, what factors will affect your ability to do the project, what your story project process is.

Territorial

"We’re going to be scooped." "People won’t buy the paper anymore and we’ll be out of a job." The print newsroom sometimes feels they need to protect their turf.

Suggestions:

• If a story is out there first, it is a story that is going to be quoted. It is still the news organization’s brand. (The Wall St. Journal held a story from going online to save it for the Monday paper. A story on the same topic came out in the Sunday Washington Post. Subsequent stories all said, "It has been reported by the Washington Post" but could have said "It has been reported by the WSJ" if they had put it online first. The mantra is, "Someone is going to scoop us, it might as well be us."
• Do lots of cross-promotion. From the website version promote the thorough coverage and analysis that will be in the next day’s paper. From the paper tell readers to look for the latest developments in the story online.
• Give the newsroom traffic reports to show the audience to the website. Demonstrating the reach of the news on the web and the demographics of web users (usually very different from the print demographics) will help them see this is reaching a different audience.

Directional

Only 30 percent of web editors said that senior news executives are involved in the website. Who provides the direction that would ensure integration?

• Develop your advocates. Who is the "big dog" in the newsroom who can see that procedure you need and ideas you’d like to try with the newsroom are supported?
• The value and importance of the online news effort to the newsroom is communicated by upper management. If their commitment is not there, figure out ways to get it.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

• Have a clear mission
• Provide rumor control
• Help ease techno-angst
• Raise their consciousness
• Find out what motivates them
• Establish clear procedures / guidelines
• Be their technology advocate
  

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Survival Tips for Small Online Staffs
in Small Newspapers

Posted on Online News listserv by: Carl Natale -- cvn@centralmaine.com
Central Maine Newspapers Online Copy Editor -- http://www.centralmaine.com

• News and budget meetings are critical: An online presence is needed to find out what is being planned. This helps prepare presentations, do more than just upload a story when it is done. And there is the effect of making the online staff seem more like part of the news operation. And don't stop at meetings. Join in as many newsroom activities as possible.

• Location, location, location: Put the online staff in the newsroom. Make sure reporters and editors can see work being done. This also reinforces the image that the news and online staff are the same. Also, this makes it easy for news staff to ask for advice, help and general conversation.

• Make your work relevant: This is much easier for those of you in the newsroom. Next time you take some special effort, show the people responsible for its creation. Grab them and show what it looks like on the screen. Make sure you let them know that people all over the world can see their work.

• Communication: I write a weekly report on hits. Instead of concentrating on the actual numbers (which look pitiful compared to print circulation) I talk about the trends. What stories are read most (Obits are the Michael Jordan of content for us). Where the most hits come from (local or nonlocal). When people read the stories online. Why hits are up/down. Reporters love it when they see their stories make the top 10. It's a one-page report that explains things in plain language. It reinforces that online is a part of the operation. This report goes to all newsroom staffers, the papers' department heads (circulation, advertising, etc.) and of course the publisher.

• Training: Offer surfing the Internet for fun and profit classes. This has mixed success. Some people forget everything after they walk away. Others just don't want to learn.

• Make yourself useful: Reporters often ask me to find information. Eventually I want to get them to be able to do it on their own. But for now it buys me a lot of goodwill. I also make lists of sites to go with their stories.

• Print out e-mail: You get a lot of feedback. Print it out and put it on bulletin boards. Make sure people know your work is being noticed. We also print them in the letters to the editor.

• Keep thinking: Look for ways to reinforce that your work is relevant despite the low circulation and profitability. It will pay off when staffers start including you in their plans for projects and stories.

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