Thinking big and meeting deadlines: innovation in the newsroom

Editors are often so occupied with running the day-to-day news operation they have little time to concentrate on what their organisations should become. Yet news organisations must innovate to stay relevant to their audiences. I asked editors from several British newsrooms how they combine their day job with leading innovation. This is what I learned.

The problem with innovation in the newsroom is not so much a problem of a lack of awareness or ideas, but the lack of the ability to implement an innovative strategy. This follows largely from the fact that the people most crucial for the implementation of strategy, the middle-tier editors, are often too time-strapped and ill-equipped to lead innovation. I know this since I am one of them.

Last academic year I had the opportunity to be a Journalist Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in Oxford and concentrate on how we could overcome this problem. I simplified the task as one of combining the day-to-day job of journalism with the ability to lead innovation. Talking to editors from several British newsrooms (including the Independent, the Guardian, Buzzfeed and the Evening Standard) and referring to scholarship on the management of creativity I came up with six lessons any desk head or section editor should learn.

These are summarised below and presented in more detail in my paper How to Lead Innovation and Still Keep Your Newsroom Working.

Lesson 1. Think big

I was surprised to note that when asked about innovation, most editors would refer to new story ideas, series, or campaigns – that is, the stuff they’ve always been doing. It seems that our day-to-day jobs tie down our imagination and we have to consciously try to see the larger opportunities our organisations may have.

Lesson 2. Know your strengths and your audience

The fact that news organisations can become anything doesn’t mean they should. They need to know what they are and who their readers are. As an editor from The Guardian put it, there’s no point in that newspaper publishing endless stories on Justin Bieber; instead, they have appointed a full-time immigration correspondent, because “we know there is a lot of interest in this, and we know our brand.”

Lesson 3. Prioritise

Once you’ve mastered point number two, you need to choose where you put your energy.

Lesson 4. Respect autonomy

Giving up some of your control will have other benefits, too. In an old news organisation everyone pretty much followed their given brief, but in an environment where differentiation and innovation are key, you need to recognise your staffers’ talent and expertise and let them run with that. “It makes for better journalism and better distribution and a better relationship with the readers”, as an editor for a digital-only news outlet told me.

Lesson 5. Take an interest in your staffers’ progress

Training is imperative to cultivate a culture where learning new skills in encouraged and expected. I was somewhat dismayed to find out that most editors I talked to would trust journalists to be intrinsically interested to learn new things. Conversely, I believe that journalists are, like all people, prone to falling into the comfort of repeating what they already know, and therefore it is important to create a culture of learning and progress.

Lesson 6. Simplify, communicate, listen, repeat

Being innovative and effective at the same time does not work without having clear goals, and even the clearest of goals don’t work if they are not communicated effectively. As one interviewee said, the key is “relentless communication about what matters and why.” Moreover, it is not enough that vertical communication works, newsroom managers will have to make sure communication also functions horizontally.

How to Lead Innovation and Still Keep Your Newsroom Working

pic credit: Flickr Creative Commons, Alex Gamela

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