These are slides for a Feb. 3 webinar for the Society of Professional Journalists on leading culture change in newsrooms.

1. Leading Change
in Your Organization
Steve Buttry
February 3, 2016
SPJ

3. • Tradition = producing newspaper
or newscast
• Mission = covering news, serving
as watchdog
Tradition vs. mission

4. Tradition vs. mission
• Tradition often dictates priorities
• Tradition often dictates workflow
• Tradition commands time, resources
• Tradition is tied to platform, mission isn’t
• Tradition discourages experimentation
• Mission requires experimentation

5. • Mission = What we should be
doing
• Tradition = How we’ve always
done it
Tradition vs. mission

6. Roles in leading change
Top editor, news director:
Proclaim mission, set priorities, pull staff
toward goals that support mission
Mid-level managers:
Emphasize mission in daily staff work
Front-line journalists:
Experiment, take risks, push colleagues
(and bosses)

7. Action drives change
• Organization may need to change
• But org chart won’t change culture
• Newsroom culture’s defaults override
structural changes
• Change what you do, how you work
• Let org chart changes support change

8. Change what you do
• News coverage (live)
• Storytelling (interactive)
• Processes: digital workflow, then feed
legacy product(s)
• Engage community
• Use products on mobile, produce content
for mobile community

9. Planning meetings
Print: Focus primarily
on the next day’s
newspaper, Sunday
paper and upcoming
print centerpiece
stories
Broadcast: Focus on
evening newscast(s),
sweeps
Digital: Morning meeting
focuses on day’s coverage
plans, mobile, social, early
traffic & engagement.
Enterprise meetings plan
interactive elements,
video, data and other
content that will require
significant planning.

10. Encourage risk
• What have you experimented on lately?
• If experiment was a success, did you
share lessons & experiment again?
• If experiment was a failure, did you share
lessons, reward risk & try again?
• Are people in your newsroom willing to
experiment?

11. Breaking news
• Breaking news coverage completely
independent of print & broadcast
products & deadlines
• Publish as soon as you verify
• Update frequently
• Liveblog big, breaking stories
• Tweet, Tout & update from scene

12. Event coverage
Livetweet & liveblog everything:
• Sports events
• Meetings
• Trials
• Festivals
• Press conferences
• Need a compelling reason not to

13. Deadlines, processes
Legacy: Reporters &
photographers
produce stories &
photos for print &
broadcast deadlines.
Digital: Even non-
breaking routine news is
published as the stories
unfold, often with
multiple updates during
the day. Editors assign
deadlines as early as
possible for the first
takes of stories.

14. Routine daily news
• Setting early deadlines (8 a.m., 11 a.m., 2
p.m.)
• Starting work earlier
• Write routine stories as they unfold, as
we do w/ breaking stories (initial post
followed by updates)

15. Enterprise
Print: Enterprise
stories are usually
Sunday stories,
planned & reported
close to the vest.
Broadcast: Enterprise
stories during
sweeps.
Digital: Enterprise
stories are
crowdsourced,
planning includes
interactive features,
video, social
promotion. Published
during the week
when ready.

17. The Five Satins
• Story published online Monday
• Text story twice as long online (60” in
print)
• Loaded with links
• Videos
• Audio clips
• Use Sunday story for more engagement

18. • Quizzes
• Timelines
• Maps
• Interactive
databases
• Data visualization
• Multimedia
storytelling tools
• Before & after
photos
• Animation
• Curation
Interactive enterprise

19. Measuring success
• What’s important? How can you measure
it?
• Not just page views & uniques
• Social sharing & engagement, time spent
w/ stories
• Number of live & interactive stories, their
engagement

20. Addressing obstacles
• Technology: Clunky CMS (invest or use
open-source solution?)
• View website & social media as
promotion, not journalism platforms
(training, recognition & rewards)
• Morale (praise journalistic & digital
excellence)

21. If you’re in charge …
• Use mobile app/site & ask mobile-
focused questions
• Visibly learn new tools (& show humility)
• Form committee to study pressing
innovation needs (mobile, social …)
• Conversation should reflect mission
• Chat up newsroom innovation leaders

22. Praise must reflect mission
• Are you praising risk-takers? Innovation
leaders?
• What you praise reflects your priorities
• Praise should be specific & tied to
specifics of mission
• Yes, you should praise people for “just
doing their jobs”

23. “But I’m not in charge”
• What can you do in your job (consistent
w/ policy, moving mission ahead)?
• Can you offer to train or mentor
colleagues (formal workshops, informal
coaching)?
• Can you pitch ideas, experiments to a
sympathetic boss?

26. Links and slides
• stevebuttry.wordpress.com
• slideshare.org/stevebuttry
Contact info:
stephenbuttry@gmail.com
@stevebuttry