Training and mentoring in newsrooms

The Situation

Training staff in American newsrooms is at an all-time low. During an era when technology is rapidly changing our ability to cover and publish the news, our ability to train and grow journalists already working in our newsrooms is severely crippled. A spotlight has been this problem lately because of ethics scandals at several highly respected and visible organizations. Newsroom Training: Where’s the Investment? is a 2002 study by the Council of Presidents of National Journalism Organizations and conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates. “It found that two thirds of the nation's journalists receive no regular skills training, that journalists are less satisfied with training opportunities than with any other aspect of their jobs and that news companies have not increased their training budgets. And roughly a third say they have cut their budgets somewhat or significantly in the aftermath of Sept.11.” (1)

The Challenge

The challenge lies in three basic issues: lack of time, lack of funding and lack of expertise.

1. The lack of time for training is in-bred in the business. The 24/7 news cycle, which is exacerbated by the Internet and the cable news channels, has made it difficult for managers to break key staff members free from daily duties to focus on training. For many, there is just simply no time.

2. The lack of funding is another problem. With a slowed down economy and a need for increased product, newsroom budgets across the country were slashed in the past few years – especially for non-essential items. Training opportunities in most newsrooms are unfortunately put into those “dispensable” terms.

3. The lack of expertise – especially in terms of new technology and new versions of it – has made utilizing in-house expertise difficult. It’s made it difficult for staff members to keep up with the appropriate technology pertinent to their jobs. It’s next to impossible to keep up with all the new technology industry-wide.

The Opportunity

There is a tremendous opportunity in creating valuable and unique training for newsroom staff members. Most importantly training would allow workers to utilize new techniques in their day-to-day work. It would mean innovation in work product and allow individuals to experience personal growth. Both translate to better morale and a better product.

Solutions

There are several ways to implement low cost training for staff. We suggest implementing more than one type of training initially, to see if different techniques are met with different levels of success. This list is by no means exhaustive in regard to the type of training programs, it is meant only as a guide.

Possible solutions include:

1. Peer-to-peer -- teaming people up for one-on-one training. This could involve two staff members working together to explore new techniques, technology or best practices. It could also involve two individuals who work in different aspects of the company teaching the other about his/her job.

2. Mentor program – this would mean pairing up a junior staff member with a more senior staffer or executive. This would provide guidance in terms of career direction and handling delicate internal situations such as asking for a raise or having a conversation about performance.

3. Trust Networks – would mean creating opportunities for staff members to partner with others who would function as “life coaches” to lead discussions, provide guidance and encourage the focus on individual needs. The success of failure of this type of initiative would depend completely on the focus remaining on the individual. The title “trust network” is imperative so that corporate agendas would not overwhelm or interfere with the individual needs. A program like this would have a greater likelihood of succeeding if the coaches were from external organizations.

4. Industry Knowledge Exchange/Leadership Sessions – means using people from other industries to work with, advise and train newsroom personnel. There is much to be learned from people who work in other disciplines. An industry knowledge exchange would be matching up individuals or small groups from one organization with another. They could share best practices about internal communications, sorting through data or other issues pertinent to their daily corporate lives. An industry leadership session would allow executives from various industries speak to newsroom personnel about the executive’s job, role in the community or issues they face while managing a large organization.

1 Poynter Institute article by Beverly Kees;

By Team Ops members:

M. J. Bear, "MJ,” Principal, mjbear.com