A media house needs to be continually assessing whether its output is meeting the needs of the audience and achieving business targets.

This starts in the newsroom and filters through to every area of the organisation.

News is a classic people business: one relatively small set of people passes on information to another larger set of people.

There is a lot of other stuff going on, of course: newsgathering, writing, photography, technology, distribution, business and so on. But in the end it’s one person telling stories to other people.

We know that every human being is different from every other human being and not surprisingly every news boss is different from every other news boss. They all have their own ways of doing things and there is no single formula for success. A lot depends on personality.

But there are some things that are common to every good newsroom and continuous, critical review of its own output is one of them.

In the absence of a formula for the news review process, here are some things a news boss should keep in mind.

• You have to care deeply and passionately about the output. 
  • This means reading, listening or watching everything that comes out of the newsroom and assessing whether it is up to standard.
• You have to convey your enthusiasm to your team.
  • They have to know you are closely interested in all their work. Your enthusiasm will rub off on them, with positive results.
• You set the standards for all to follow.
  • You should work out some simple messages that you keep repeating. For example:
    • The most important quality of every story coming out of this newsroom is accuracy. We don’t accept ANY errors.
    • We all have opinions but when you come to work here, you leave your personal opinions at home.
    • We keep notes on EVERYTHING. We can’t defend a story if you can’t produce your notes.
    • We always try to be fair and straight with everyone, from the subject of our stories to our readers and our colleagues.
    • We don’t just report on a community, we are part of that community and we cannot serve the community unless we understand it intimately
• You never let an error pass unnoticed.
  • This is the single most important element of quality control. If one of your team makes a mistake and nobody mentions it, it means either you didn’t see it or you don’t care. This is demotivating for staff. You must at least talk to them about it.
• Deliver your critical messages wisely.
  • The old days of quality control by means of a fierce telling-off are over. You can be stern and disapproving without bullying. You can also understand that the best journalists are their own fiercest critics. They already feel bad about their error and you don’t need to rub their noses in it. Simply noticing that you are disappointed in them will be enough of a penalty.
• Praise and criticism should be dished out judiciously.
  • We expect a consistently high level of competence so high praise should be reserved for work that is exceptional. Similarly, though, there will always be mistakes, they should be rare and criticism should be proportionate.
• Critical review needs to be systematic, not haphazard.
  • There needs to be a structure, a regular routine of looking back and assessing what has gone right and what has gone wrong. The existence of the routine is a guarantee that important messages will not get overlooked in the pressure of the daily news cycle.
• There should be short-term review meetings.
  • In day-to-day operations, my own preference was to start the morning news meeting with a brief review of what we had done the previous day, before continuing on to plan the day’s coverage. If there was something too sensitive or too important to be raised at that meeting, I would ask the relevant people to stay behind for further discussions.
• There should be long-term review meetings.
  • You need to take a step back, every now and then to look, not just at individual stories, but also at how well you are covering issues. What important themes are you missing? Do you have the right staff to produce the coverage that circumstances require? Are you publishing in the right places and on the right platforms? And so on. I remember attending a meeting in 1975 and my editor suddenly saying: “I’ve realised we did not adequately cover the revolution in Portugal last year.” He explained that if we had thought more carefully about it at the time, we would have spotted the implications of Portugal abandoning its colonies, the result of which was to embolden revolutionary movements throughout Southern Africa.
• Include the competition in your reviews.
  • You should not assess your organisation’s performance in isolation.It’s no good if you did a pretty good job but your competitors did a better one. Did they have stories you missed? Were they first with the news? Did they think more creatively about how to handle a particular story? Were their headlines better? Always tell your own staff that you will never accept being anything less than number one in your market.
• You need to identify and understand your audience.
  • A great British newspaper editor in the middle of the 20th Century told his staff they were writing for “the man on the Clapham omnibus and the woman on Rhyl promenade.” He went on to say these imaginary folk represented ordinary people who were interested in improving their lives, owning their own homes and getting on in the world. This is similar to the modern technique of audience segmentation. It helps you to know what kind of stories your audience is interested in, and where they go to get their information. You cannot have too much information about your audience.
• A news organisation that goes broke is no use to anyone.
  • The news media is frequently under financial pressure and many titles have disappeared in the past 20 years. The editorial output of the news must be consistent with a viable and sustainable business strategy. So there should be regular reviews, with the relevant business colleagues, about how the news operation can play a part, within its existing ethical and editorial standards, in ensuring the success of the business.
• Review your own performance.
  • You expect your staff to be self-critical and you should do the same. At the end of every day, ask yourself: did I do everything I could to make today’s output as good as possible? If not, did I miss any obvious chances? Did I deal with everybody fairly and professionally? Did I inject a bit of fun into proceedings, to alleviate tension and make everybody feel better?

Bob Eggington

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The post Reviewing news output is essential first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Introducing a converged news operation is rarely easy. Those trying to introduce changes in workflows, roles and responsibilities are often met with resistance.

Media Helping Media received a request from a national newspaper in the Caribbean for advice about introducing newsroom convergence.

The person who contacted us had met resistance to change from senior newspaper staff who feared that convergence would threaten their jobs, strip their newspaper of resources,  and weaken its impact.

What they had failed to grasp is that newsroom convergence is an essential editorial and business strategy. It involves the creation of a ‘content factory’ delivering news to whatever device/format the audience uses in order to receive their news.

The following is the advice we shared, which was followed and implemented.

The challenge of converging news operations

Merging different news platforms (print, TV, online, and all digital and social outlets) into a single, unified operation, known as “convergence,” is an essential process for the survival of a media business. However it is often faces significant resistance.

Why resistance occurs:

• Fear of change: Existing departments, especially the dominant ones, often view convergence as a distraction or a threat to their established workflows and roles.
• Lack of senior leadership buy-in: Without strong support from top editors and managers, convergence efforts can be met with negativity or half-hearted attempts.

How to overcome resistance and implement convergence:

• Establish clear business imperatives:
  • Senior management must communicate clearly the necessity of convergence for the media organisation’s survival and future success.
  • They need to explain why it’s essential, what it entails, how it will be implemented, and who will be responsible.
  • Convergence should be integrated into a new, well-defined business model with a solid business plan.
• Secure unwavering senior management support:
  • All senior leaders must fully embrace convergence based on its business logic.
  • They must communicate the implementation steps to all staff and address how each department will be affected.
• Address staff concerns:
  • Acknowledge and address staff fears, which may include:
    • Dilution of responsibilities and loss of status.
    • Challenges in managing different publishing cycles (daily/weekly vs. real-time).
    • The need to learn new technologies.
    • Concerns about a potential decline in quality.
• Create a centralised “Content Factory”:
  • Establish a “superdesk” as a central command-and-control area for all news production.
  • Ensure close collaboration between input, production, and output teams.
  • Implement a single, comprehensive news meeting involving representatives from all platforms (print, broadcast, online, social media, etc.).
  • Change the mindset from deadline driven output, to verified information driven output.
• Align objectives and appraisals:
  • Make convergence a core business objective that filters down to departmental, unit, and individual goals.
  • Incorporate convergence performance into staff appraisals.
• Tailor convergence to your specific needs:
  • Recognise that convergence is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
  • Adapt the process to fit your organisation’s location, market, audience, and potential.
• Ask the important questions:
  • Is your media business keeping pace with changing audience behaviour?
  • Are you maximising all content exploitation opportunities?
  • Are you effectively informing public debate across all platforms?

The importance of convergence:

• Convergence is crucial for the survival and future viability of media organisations.
• While staff may have doubts, it’s essential to move forward with a clear and decisive strategy.
• The challenge for media managers is how to articulate that strategy in a way that is convincing, inclusive, positive for the individuals involved, and which assures all that it is the only way to future-proof the media organisation’s business.

Questions

1. What is newsroom convergence, and why is it considered an essential strategy for media businesses?
2. Identify two main reasons why senior newspaper staff might resist newsroom convergence.
3. Describe the role of senior management in successfully implementing convergence in a media organisation.
4. What is a “content factory,” and how does it function within a converged newsroom?
5. Explain how convergence can be tailored to fit the specific needs of a media organisation.
6. Discuss the importance of aligning objectives and appraisals with convergence goals.
7. How can media managers effectively communicate the necessity of convergence to their staff?
8. What are some potential staff concerns regarding convergence, and how can they be addressed?
9. Analyse the impact of convergence on the quality of news production and distribution.
10. Evaluate the statement: “Convergence is crucial for the survival and future viability of media organisations.”

Answers

1. Newsroom convergence is the merging of the news gathering, production and distribution of different news platforms into a single operation. It is essential for media businesses to adapt to changing audience behaviours and maximise content exploitation opportunities.
2. Resistance may occur due to fear of change and lack of senior leadership buy-in.
3. Senior management must clearly communicate the necessity of convergence, integrate it into a business model, and secure support from all leaders.
4. A ‘content factory’ is a centralised ‘command-and-control’ area for news production, ensuring collaboration across platforms and focusing on verified information.
5. Convergence should be adapted to the organisation’s location, market, audience, and potential, recognising it is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
6. Aligning objectives and appraisals ensures that convergence becomes a core business goal, influencing departmental and individual performance.
7. Media managers should articulate a clear, inclusive, and positive strategy that assures staff of convergence’s necessity for future-proofing the business.
8. Staff concerns include dilution of responsibilities and learning new technologies. Addressing these involves acknowledging fears and providing support.
9. Convergence can enhance quality by ensuring consistent, verified information across platforms, though it may also challenge traditional publishing cycles.
10. Convergence is crucial as it allows media organisations to remain competitive and relevant in a rapidly changing media landscape.

Lesson plan for trainers

If you are a trainer of journalists we have a free lesson plan: ‘Newsroom convergence‘ which you are welcome to download and adapt for your own purposes.

We have more resources about convergence, how to introduce it, and the workflows and roles and responsibilities involved.

Creating a converged news operation

Convergence: workflows, roles and responsibilities

The post Convergence: transforming news production first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Is your news organisation and its output male dominated? Are women fairly represented in newsroom leadership roles and the stories covered? Do your staff and your news agenda reflect the society they serve?

A 12-point plan containing “substantive opportunities to reshape the status quo” and improve the representation and voices of women in the global news industry was published in November 2022.

We look at the steps suggested and examine the possible consequences.

The report Outrage to Opportunity looks at the representation of women in newsrooms in India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK, and the USA.

Luba Kassova, the report’s author, says in-depth interviews with more than 40 senior editors in the six countries revealed two areas of concern:

• The “underrepresentation” of women in news leadership roles.
• The “invisibility” of women in news coverage.

Kassova’s research revealed a “cultural exclusion” of women in news leadership roles and found that the voices of women “remain muted in a global news industry”.

However the study also recognises that progress is being made. It looks at 168 existing initiatives which aim to improve women’s representation or inclusion in news.

And it identifies practical steps that could be taken to “include the missing perspectives of women of all colours in news leadership and coverage”.

The report says that taking these steps could open up significant business opportunities and that “global revenues in the newspaper industry would increase by a cumulative $11bn by 2027 and $38 billion by 2032“.

This article looks at those 12 practical steps that could be taken by news organisations. They are listed below with the author’s permission.

The 282-page document – embedded at the foot of this article – sets out three areas which the author says “requires the news industry’s urgent attention”.

1: Inclusion

The report found that women are still on the margins of editorial decision-making in the highest-profile news areas. In the major journalistic specialisms such as business, politics, and foreign affairs, women hold as few as one in six editorial roles in the countries researched. Occasional instances of parity, for example South African political editors or US business editors, are counterbalanced by exclusively male leadership in political editor roles in countries such as Kenya and India.

2: Race

According to the report, women news leaders are subject to marginalisation in countries with multi-racial populations such as South Africa, the UK, and the US. This, the report says, is a news industry “blind spot”. In the countries examined their representation is significantly below their proportion in the working population. Kassova says that when interviewed, news leadership teams are either unaware, reactive, push back, or turn a blind eye to the problem.

3: Coverage

The report says the coverage of issues that affect women is disproportionate. Just 0.02% of news coverage globally focuses on the gaps between men and women in pay, power, safety, authority, confidence, health, and ageism. According to the report:

“Just having women in many leadership positions is not the only solution. You need women’s voices to be heard, and, when women are in leadership positions, for them to be in meaningful positions.”

Steps to be taken

The report outlines 12 solutions for:

“changing the status quo and improving women’s representation and inclusion in news leadership and creating a more balanced and inclusive news coverage that engages more female and racially-diverse audiences”.

News sector level 

1. Consolidate efforts at an industry level to enhance progress 

• Set up a body that unifies all working in this area under the umbrella of the gender equity cause.
• Nonprofits and associations working to improve women’s position in news should collaborate more and compete less.
• Develop industry-wide initiatives that aim to understand women audiences.

News organisational level

2. Conduct a comprehensive gender diversity audit across all elements of the news operation

• Carry out an audit of the existing gender balance and news initiatives for women along all the elements of the value chain.

3. Make the gender diversity strategy explicit

• Agree the goal to pursue gender balance in your news organisation and coverage and make it explicit in the organisation’s strategy.

News leadership level

4. Improve the representation of all women

• Raise awareness that male-favouring norms prevail in society and in journalism.
• Be intentional about change at all levels within your news organisation by setting targets and measuring representation continuously along the whole news value chain.
• Challenge the persistent soft vs. hard news gender stereotyping that keeps women out of editorial roles in high-profile areas such as politics, economics, and foreign affairs.
• Develop talent retention programmes, especially for mid-level managers.

5. Improve specifically the representation of women of colour

• Measure women’s representation to understand the role of race and ethnicity when overlaid onto gender.
• Review recruitment and retention processes to accommodate diverse talent.
• Establish and measure targets for representation and inclusion of women of colour.

6. Improve the inclusion of all women in decision-making

• Ensure everyone understands that a more diverse team does not automatically translate into inclusive decision making.
• Consciously tone down the competitive win-lose journalistic values inside the newsroom to create a more empathetic culture.
• Encourage support groups for women, with men on board.
• Use employee engagement surveys to measure employees’ and leaders’ perceived inclusion.
• Set up initiatives that specifically support individual women’s safety and well-being.

7. Improve specifically the inclusion of women of colour in decision making

• Beware of knee-jerk reactions to external trigger events which lead to superficial solutions.
• Educate yourself about the stressful experiences of women of colour in your news organisation.
• When considering a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiative, bring in experts to run it rather than allocating it to staff with lived experiences but no formalised expertise.
• Do not expect women or ethnic minority groups to lead and resolve their own underrepresentation or exclusion. Offer support.
• If you are a woman of colour, do not take on DEI initiatives if this is too emotionally draining.
• Measure and track the success of DEI initiatives. Establish baselines before the initiatives start.

Newsroom and journalism level

8. Improve the representation and inclusion of women in newsrooms 

• Implement recommendations for gender diversity in the workplace from the “Gender Parity in News Checklist” in ‘The Missing Perspectives of Women in News’ report (p. 166). The two-page checklist is embedded at the foot of this article.

Newsgathering and news coverage

9. Improve the representation of all women

• Focus on circumventing the five main biases in journalism (status quo, male bias leading to gender blindness, short-term outlook, reductive journalism, organisations’ unwillingness to report on themselves).
• Measure the impact of your women-centric journalism.
• Make your newsroom more inclusive and accessible through outreach training.
• Ensure the sustainability of interventions to diversify contributors: keep them simple, get backing from both the top and the grassroots, and, ideally, make them voluntary.

10. Improve storytelling about women of all colours

• Look for story angles that appeal to both women and men.
• Use more micro angles in storytelling, including human stories to make macro stories relevant.
• Increase news coverage of seven gender gaps (power, pay, safety, authority, confidence, health, and ageism), which are wider for people of colour.
• Introduce inclusive storytelling and encompass the perspectives of different communities and audience groups about how a particular story affects them.

11. Improve the portrayal of all women

• Recognise that the portrayal of women of all colours in the news is an industry blind spot.
• Start measuring the use of common gender or racial stereotypes in your news coverage.
• Focus on expertise rather than identity when interviewing women contributors.
• Conduct portrayal analyses to understand how news contributors are portrayed.

News consumption and impact

12. Reframe the case for change to include the business opportunity of serving women audiences 

• Develop a business plan for increasing revenue from women audiences whilst still retaining men’s readership.
• Research and develop women-friendly news products and formats.
• Track women’s engagement and consumption.
• Track the impacts of any new strategy (on finance, brand, individuals, influencers, and decision-makers).

The business case

The report says gender equality in news makes business sense. It claims that if the “addressable gender consumption gap” in the global news industry is closed there could be a potential cumulative revenue opportunity of $43 billion between 2023 and 2027 and $83 billion between 2023 and 2032. See the section of the report covering business opportunities (part 4, chapter 2).

Outrage to Opportunities

The entire 282-page report Outrage to Opportunity is embedded below.

The report was produced by the international audience strategy consultancy AKAS, and published by Internews.

The gender parity in news checklist

This checklist appeared on pages 166 and 167 in the 2020 report by Luba Kassova “The Missing Perspectives of Women in News“. It is republished here with the author’s permission.

The post Female representation in news leadership and coverage first appeared on Media Helping Media.

In this article we look at the steps involved in creating a news and current affairs programme based on the needs of the target audience.

Essentially, a radio news and current affairs programme has four main format types. These are:

• The interview
  • This is where the presenter interviews someone in the news. It could be about the main story of the day.
  • If it is the most important story this interview would take place immediately after the main news bulletin.
  • It should be between around five minutes long, although this could be stretched to 10 depending on the seriousness of the topic.
  • There will also be shorter interviews throughout the programme.
• The reporter package
  • A package will be put together by a reporter or correspondent and will include a number of clips of people the journalist has interviewed.
  • A package will typically be about three and a half minutes long and contain three or four clips.
  • Each clip will be about 20 to 30 seconds long. The package can be pre-recorded or live.
• The two-way
  • This is where the presenter interviews a reporter or correspondent covering a story.
  • It is designed to tap into the journalist’s background knowledge of the story being covered and is sometimes used before a main interview.
  • A two-way can vary from between 90 seconds to five minutes depending on the importance of the subject matter.
  • It is different in tone from interviews with outside contributors.
  • When the presenter is interviewing someone from outside on a big story, the tone will often be adversarial, pressing the interviewee on important points.
  • In a two-way with a reporter, the presenter is simply trying to draw out the most important facts in a neutral tone.
• The vox pop
  • This is a mix of clips from members of the public who are giving their reactions/opinions on a news story. This should be no longer than three minutes long.
  • It should contain a variety of perspectives so that the audience can hear diverse opinions.

Structure of a current affairs programme

The main purpose of the show is to cover the news and get reaction to it. So the main ingredients are news bulletins, with interviews and longer reports about the individual news items.

There is more to it than that.

There will also be other information vital to the listener, including weather forecasts and sports news, plus perhaps business news, summaries of what is in the newspapers, programme trails for the rest of the network and so on.

These all need to fit together in a regular pattern, so that with familiarity, the listener gets to understand how the programme works. You can think of this as arranging the furniture of the show.

You will probably want your main news bulletins to happen on the hour, perhaps with summaries on the half hour. These are the first fixed points.

The weather and the sports news should also happen at exactly the same time each morning – just as they appear in the same place every day in a newspaper.

The audience likes predictability in the way the content is presented, so that they know when to tune in for the information in which they are most interested.

When you are happy with your programme structure, the task for the production team every day is to think about how the news stories and interviews fit in.

Running order

Every edition of the show works to a running order. A rough running order is produced at the very first programme meeting and then modified and updated as the day and the night develop.

The following is a rough outline for a two-hour-long radio news and current affairs programme.

Exploiting content for maximum impact

Your production team should include at least one person monitoring the live output being produced by the programme.

This person is looking for newsworthy clips to package for the news summaries on the half hour and the main bulletins on the hour, and to illustrate live studio debates.

Your programme needs to be a breaking news production line, continually delivering original newsworthy clips.

This production role should also share all the breaking news clips from across all output and on all appropriate social media channels.

Creating a programme trailer

In order to attract new listeners, you need to create compelling programme trailers to advertise the material to be broadcast in the following morning’s programme.

This is essential, and has to be factored into the daily work pattern. The trailer must promote the main story of the day; the one in which you are planning to invest most resources.

Creating the sort of trailer that will stop people in their tracks and make them pay attention can help win over new listeners, introduce them to the subject matter to be covered on your programme, and, hopefully, encourage them to spread the word by mouth and social media.

A promo trailer should be around 30 seconds maximum, the shorter the better. You want to grab attention. Give the audience a snippet of what is coming up. You don’t want to give them too much, but just enough that they think “I must tune in tomorrow to hear more about that”.

And you want your trailer to be shareable on social media, so the better it is, the more chance it has of going viral. Ask yourself would you share the trailer with your friends? If not, work on it some more. And keep working on it until you think it has the quality to go viral.

Recipe for a good trailer

So how do you create an attention-grabbing radio trailer? Here are a few suggestions.

Encourage your reporter and producers to always be alert to an audio clip that sets out the scale of the issue, but doesn’t give the solution.

For example, you might be doing a story about the rural economy and how people are struggling to survive.

You will have interviewed farmers and villagers. One might say something along the lines of “I didn’t know how I would survive”. Such a quote will make the audience want to know what happened next. What did the interviewee do to survive? Could it be relevant to the listener’s own predicament?

That clip is less than five seconds long, yet it is likely to resonate with thousands of people in a similar position. Of course your piece will no doubt have examined the issues the farmers and villagers face, and you will probably have covered how they coped. But save that for the programme.

The next trick is to package that clip, and perhaps another, with a carefully crafted text that explains WHY people MUST tune in to your programme in order to learn more.

Calls to action

The wording is important.

You could use ‘calls to action’ where your trailer invites the audience to ‘listen’, ‘take part’, and ‘assess’.

Words that suggest drama work well, such as ‘revealed’, ‘for the first time’, ‘life and death decision’.

But you must remain honest. You are in the business of facts not fiction. Never exaggerate.

Another benefit of trailers is that it could encourage your competition, both broadcast and print, to tune in so they can follow up your story. And that’s a good thing. You want them to be following your lead, you want to be known as the station that sets the news agenda. Because by the time they have heard your news item you will have already moved the topic by inviting guests to respond live on-air.

Because trailers should be part of your daily output, you should probably consider creating a template so that it can be used every day.

Something like:

“In tomorrow’s morning programme we will be looking at (here you can mention up to three items), and we will be talking to xxxx about xxxx (insert short clip here).”

The post Creating a current affairs programme first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Guidelines for media organisations planning to create new products to inform the audience.

This is the third article in a three-part series about managing a new news project, event or product.

In the first, ‘Project development for a media company‘ and the second ‘The skills of media project management‘ we’ve demonstrated how to develop ideas for new products and how to create them using project management discipline.

These methodologies have been thoroughly tested and proven over time in numerous media houses.

But in the news business you do not always have time for the Gantt chart/whiteboard approach. Stories spring up so quickly you have to be flexible and find other ways of working in a planned and disciplined manner.

In this example, we were asked at short notice to help produce a televised debate between political candidates before a general election. We had three-and-half weeks to make it happen.

The importance and the risk factors were obviously high and we could not afford to spend a week or two planning.

For one thing, we needed to hire a venue and so we had to start checking availability immediately.

But we still needed to think the whole project through before making other commitments, and we decided to use the production schedule as a form of project plan.

The first step was a long meeting of all the key staff. For a show of this sensitivity and high profile, we were glad to have the Director General of the broadcaster at the meeting. This both underlined the importance of the task and gave the DG’s approval for the plan.

But we still needed to think it through before springing into action and we decided to use the production schedule as a form of project plan.

Every television programme should have a production schedule. The difference with this one was that it went into much more detail about what we needed to do to make the show happen.

Essentially it is a vertical version of the Gantt chart/whiteboard but it also identifies all the personnel, and includes all the main operational details.

Candidates debate

Staffing

• Producer/editor
• Deputy producer/editor
• OB (outside broadcast) producer
• Director of photography
• Presenters
• Candidate producers
• Scenography producer
• Graphics producer
• Titles producer
• Audience producer
• Sub-titles producer
• Picture editor
• Control room producer
• Make-up
• Internet content producer
• Floor manager
• Camera operators
• Lighting
• Sound
• Stagehands
• OB truck

Production schedule

TX (transmission) minus 25

• Discuss and plan
• Determine overall editorial remit
• Write brief overview document

TX minus 21

• Venue lined up
• Produce design brief (set, titles, endboard, graphics, captions, internet content)
• Appoint production and OB crews
• Appoint HQ-based staff
• Assign one producer to each candidate

TX minus 18

• Briefings for all producers
• Briefings for OB staff
• Briefings for HQ-based staff
• Candidate producers establish contact with candidates, arrange to meet to discuss plans
• Secure location for recording
• Reconnaissance of location
• Produce promotional schedule for TV, radio and internet

TX minus 14

• Produce technical requirements document (TechReq)
• Invite audience
• Plan titles
• Schedule internet content (web pages and social media)

TX minus 10

• Produce lighting plan
• Produce camera plan
• Define range of shots to be used throughout recording
• Source music for titles
• Record/obtain VT for titles

TX minus 9

• Edit titles and end-board
• Produce graphics

TX minus 8

• Production day off

TX minus 7

• Production day off

TX minus 6

• All-staff meeting to review progress
• Sign off titles and graphics
• Draft script
• OB crew briefing on camera use
• TV and radio promos start be aired

TX minus 5

• Script conference, approve script

TX minus 4

• All-staff meeting, final checks

TX minus 2

• 0900 – Call time for production crew and OB crew, briefing
• 0930 – Build set, dress set, install cameras, lights etc
• 1130 – Technical checks, studio, graphics, scanner etc
• 1200 – Rehearsal
• 1400 – Production and OB crews review

TX minus 1

• 0900 – iron out all remaining problems

TX 0

• 0900 – Call time for production crew and OB crew
• 0930 – Technical check, facilities check
• 1100 – Call time for HQ-based staff
• 1200 – Audience arrives, audience briefing
• 1215 to 1230 – Candidates arrive, greeted by presenter and the relevant producer
• 1230 – Candidates in their dressing rooms, make-up, final brief
• 1300 – Record debate
• 1500 – Record teasers
• 1530 – Edit teasers
• 1600 – Edit programme and insert sub-titles
• 1800 – Take clips for news bulletins
• 1830 – Take clips for internet
• 2000 – (or whenever) Debate transmits

TX plus 1

• Press release on audience figures
• Wash-up meeting to discuss lessons learnt

We circulated the schedule widely and referred to it constantly in the progress chasing. If something slipped (and several things did) we revised the schedule and re-issued it.

In this approach to project planning, you as the project manager need to keep the dependencies in your head – they are not identified so clearly on the schedule.

In the wash-up meeting we identified numerous lessons to be learned. For example, we should have included more operational detail about the arrival, on the day, of the audience and the candidates: they both came in through the same door which made filming the arrival of the candidates (for the opening sequence) problematic.

There were other lessons, too, but they all re-inforced the main point: every significant problem would have been avoided if we had planned in more detail.

Lesson plan for trainers

If you are a trainer of journalists we have a free lesson plan: Project management for journalists which you are welcome to download and adapt for your own purposes.

Related articles

Project management in media

The skills of media project management

The post The project management process first appeared on Media Helping Media.

If you are planning a media project – whether it be a new programme, covering a live event, launching a new product, there are certain rules you should observe.

In the first in this series of three articles we looked at the basics of project development for a media organisation in order to launch new products or refresh current output.

That module included defining the target audience, setting out the unique editorial proposition, assessing the cost of the project, and calculating the return.

In other words, you have done the thinking. But there is a lot more thinking still to be done, if you are to turn your idea into a real-life product. To do that, you need to use the skills and techniques of project management.

Many books have been written on this subject.  There are detailed project management methodologies you could learn, if you wanted to do so.  A man called Gantt invented a useful chart that helps you manage your project.

But you can do without all that if you follow the basic rules.  Here they are:

Specification, time, and money

The three main components of any project are the specification, the time allowed and the money available. You want to finish the project to specification, on time and within budget

This speaks for itself, but it is vital that you understand the three components in detail before you begin work. Then you know, and everybody else knows, precisely what you are trying to achieve. Your whole project plan is based on that understanding.

The reason I make this point is that external forces often want to change the basic components after the project has started. They might (and often do) try to change the specification, bring forward the launch date or reduce the amount of money available.

They have to understand that any change in the specification, the time or the budget might mean a total re-think.

Planning

It is important that you plan everything before you do anything. If you forget all the other rules, do not forget this one. Your thinking time is your most valuable time. Get a complete picture of the project in your head before you allow work to start

Workstreams

Next you need to identify the workstreams involved in the proposed project. The workstreams are the pieces of work that all need to be done.

They might include recruitment, training, buying equipment and software, commissioning design work, writing technical specifications, producing guidelines or standards, renting space, getting permissions, booking travel, market research, rehearsing, printing, marketing, producing pilots or prototypes, testing – whatever.  You need a complete list.

The project plan document

Once the workstreams are in place you need to write down all the elements in a project plan document.

This can be a large piece of paper, a Gantt chart, a spreadsheet or a whiteboard in your office. Start by writing today’s date at the top of the left hand side, and the date you want to launch your product at the top of the right hand side (If you read right to left, invert these instructions).

Let’s say there are two months between today’s date and the launch of your product.  Divide the space between them into equal time segments. For example, you might have two months to complete the project, so your top line will be divided into eight segments representing eight weeks:

Below “Today’s date” you are going make a vertical list of all the workstreams – the things that need to be done.

In the row next to each workstream heading, you are going to write the critical milestones, in the week when they must be achieved.

Let’s say one of the work streams is Design. It might appear like this, showing the important milestones:

Do this with all the workstreams. In particular you are looking for dependencies: where one piece of necessary work can’t be carried out until another has been completed. Here is an example of a Gantt chart showing dependencies in an architectural project:

Plan for the unexpected

It’s important with any project to include a bit of slack to allow for the things that will inevitably go wrong.

Planning is the central to success, but as Mike Tyson said: “Everybody has a plan till they get punched in the mouth”. Things WILL go wrong. So you have to build a little slack into your project to allow for that: a bit more time than you think you’ll actually need; a bit of money tucked away in case an emergency arises that can be solved by throwing money at it; and one or more of the specifications that can wait until after launch, without drastically affecting the outcome, if need be.

Teamwork and collaboration

Ensure that you share the plan with your team, and let them improve it if they can.

The team will actually do all the work and they need to own the results. You achieve that by listening to them, involving them and respecting them. Make sure they are all absolutely clear and supportive of the objective. If people are doubtful about the wisdom of the project it would be better for them to find somewhere else to work.

Get started

Now the work can actually begin.  And you will soon notice the benefit of having thought everything through carefully beforehand.

Communication

Make sure you communicate with your team constantly and meet together at least weekly.

Set an example to the team by understanding what they are doing. If you are not interested in their work, they won’t be either. Know all the details of the project inside out. Be available to everyone and don’t ask anyone to do something you would not be willing to do yourself.

Chase progress sensitively

You need to ensure people are doing what they are expected to do, so a project manager must always chase progress, but it is important not to overwork people – that is not sustainable.

It is your job to make sure that deadlines are met and the weekly meeting is a vital checkpoint. Know exactly how you are going to react if a work stream is running behind schedule. It must be clear how any lost time is going to be made up. But it’s also your job to make sure they do not overwork.

I have seen people burn out trying their darnedest to hit deadlines. Their dedication is admirable but that way of working is not sustainable. So keep the workload within reasonable bounds and ensure they take some time off. It will be better that way in the long run.

Testing

Be sure to plenty of time for testing before launch.

Ideally, your product should be ready at least a couple of weeks before launch so that you can test if thoroughly. However well you have done your job, testing is sure to throw up problems that need to be addressed. Because testing is just about the last thing before launch, it is also the thing that gets squeezed most by delays earlier in the schedule. So be ruthless about getting into the testing phase on time. Otherwise the first thing you know about some problems will be when the product is launched on a startled public.

Learning

After launch, do a thorough wash-up, learning all the lessons from the project.

Typically, everyone is exhausted after launch. They want to go away and celebrate or lie down in a darkened room. They should have some time to do that. But it is important to do your review of the entire project while memories are still fresh. That way you can record all the lessons that have been learned and begin to schedule corrections or improvements to the product that the project has thrown up.

In the third and final part of this series we look at an example of a successful media project and the steps taken along the way.

Lesson plan for trainers

If you are a trainer of journalists we have a free lesson plan: Project management for journalists which you are welcome to download and adapt for your own purposes.

Related articles

Project management in media

The media project management process

The post The skills of media project management first appeared on Media Helping Media.

A media organisation must always remain alert to changing audience demand and behaviour. This involves continually examining what is produced to ensure that it is relevant to those who consume it.

There is a danger of losing your audience if you are not adapting in order to hold their attention.

Part of this process might involve revising the current editorial process and/or creating new products to try to both retain the existing audience and attract new listeners, viewers, and readers.

Such a process, done properly, can lead to increased audience engagement and loyalty.

But how can media managers be sure they are creating the right products? And what are the steps they need to take?

Planning a new product

The launch of any media product, whether it’s a new radio or TV programme, a special edition for a newspaper, or a website, needs meticulous research, planning, and, above all, justification.

In this article, the first in a three-part series, we look first at the basics of managing such a project before moving on to a how-to guide setting out what to do if you are planning a relaunch or a new product, and then look at an example of how to set up a new TV programme was successfully launched.

The following principles should be applied by all broadcasters and publishers involved in the process of creating new output. It’s best to make a checklist setting out all the questions that need to be answered. That checklist can be broken down into four areas:

• Defining the target audience.
• Setting out the unique editorial proposition.
• Assessing the cost.
• Calculating the return.

Let’s look at those four areas in more detail.

Define and get to know your target audience

The first question to ask is “Who is it for?”.

You are about to devote considerable time and effort in order to create something new, so you need to know whether anyone will want what you are about to produce.

This is where you need to ensure that what you are creating matches the requirements of your audience.

Our training module about “The value of thorough research for a media business” sets out the steps a media business needs to consider when establishing its position in the local media market.

And then you need to understand the audience you aim to reach with the new product. Our training module “Identifying the target audience and its information needs” will take you through this process.

Set out a clear and unique editorial proposition

The second question is “What are you offering?”.

Before you start you need to set out what is unique about what you are about to produce.

• How will it be different from what the competitors are producing?
• Why would anyone want to listen to your radio station, watch your TV programme, read your magazine, or visit your website?

This is about offering something different; something that not only doesn’t currently exist, but also something that is so unique, fresh and relevant that it sets your media organisation apart from the rest.

Perhaps your differential is in terms of topics covered, the way you treat news, the user engagement and interactivity you offer, the editorial and ethical values you hold dear, your focus on fact-checking, the diversity of voices you include.

Our training module “Establishing a market differential with original journalism”, sets out a way to do this. After reading that module you are ready for step three in the process.

Calculate the cost in terms of money and resources

Next, your media business needs to know whether it can afford to pay for the new content idea.

The first question to consider is whether you can do it with existing resources.

Is there a way of reorganising how you currently do things in order to be able to produce more or different content without having to hire extra staff and equipment?

You will need to look at your current production processes.

In my experience, many new products can be created from existing resources if media managers are prepared to take a fresh look at how news is produced.

Our training module “Creating a converged news operation”, sets out some simple steps that will enable a news organisation to introduce efficiencies which will improve the quantity and quality of output.

This usually involves introducing new workflows and changes to what staff currently do. Our training module “Convergence, workflows, rolls and responsibilities”, shows how this can be implemented.

I have introduced successfully convergence models in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, SE Europe, and the CIS. In every case duplication of effort has been eliminated and productivity has been increased – and all from existing resources.

Once you have taken a fresh look at how your newsroom works, and you know more how you can exploit existing resources for maximum gain, you are ready to move on to the next step.

Understand the sources of revenue

The final point is about how to make money from the new programme, edition, or website. You need to know which advertisers / sponsors will want to be associated with what you are creating?

And, although I have listed this as point four, it would make sense to start thinking about this at the start of the process during the audience identification stage.

Our training module “How to develop a media sales strategy” sets out some simple steps which, if followed, should help you monetise the new product, cover your costs, and enable you to start thinking about how to expand your media business further.

In the second article in this series, Bob Eggington sets out a “How-to of media project management” listing the practical steps required. The third article, also written by Bob, looks at “A practical example of media project management”, in which he shares a case-study of a programme he has implemented.

Lesson plan for trainers

If you are a trainer of journalists we have a free lesson plan: Project management for journalists which you are welcome to download and adapt for your own purposes.

Related articles

The skills of media project management

The media project management process

The post Project management in media first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Media organisations need to ensure that the content they produce is available on every device the audience turns to for information.

In previous articles we have looked at the importance of Knowing your audience and Establishing a market differential for that audience which would inform the public debate with original, in-depth journalism.

In the past, broadcasting and publishing were fairly predictable. The audience watched TV, listened to the radio, and bought newspapers.

We worked to deadlines set by the broadcast schedules or the print runs.

The design of devices such as TV and radio changed from time to time, but the basic philosophy of broadcasting bulletins and related programmes changed very little. The same was true with newspapers.

Digital disruption

Then digital journalism disrupted the model. Content could be viewed online, on mobile and on tablets at any time of the day, on demand and on the move. Rolling, 24-hour news channels also contributed to the disruption.

I remember when I was managing editor of BBC News Online and realising when we published the first story that life would never be the same again.

We had started the continuous news cycle for the BBC. Everything had to change, including workflows, how stories were created and developed, roles and responsibilities, job descriptions, and organisational structures.

And then social media grew, and the audience became creators and curator of content, producing, commenting, sharing, adding value, beginning conversations, offering options, and participating in the news cycle. Another powerful and disrupting influence.

While all this was taking place, technology was not only matching the ambitions and aspirations of the content producers and content consumers, it was also creating new ways to do both.

Successful media businesses could no longer relax with legacy systems and known ways. They had to innovate, and to innovate they had to understand the audience, the technology, and the market.

So business development managers were hired and units set up to track the changes in audience behaviour in order to try to see what new platforms were being developed and to feed the information back into the news production and business planning departments.

Luckily, for those of us in the news management business, there also developed groups of people who made a living out of analysing the data surrounding changing audience behaviour, examining the implications for content producers and the market, and offering that wisdom to news business at a price.

One of those companies is WeAreSocial in Singapore who produce a six-monthly report on audience behaviour. The data they produce offers valuable and interesting insights into how content is consumed. Much of that data can be viewed, free-of-charge, on their Slideshare site.

Using such information can help media managers plan how their businesses need to evolve. Decision can be taken which are informed by solid business logic.

Digital first, digital parallel or digital denial

Responding to audience behaviour data will probably mean that a media business decides to introduce a digital first strategy.

Digital first means that content is published on digital platforms before, or at the same time, as it’s published on traditional platforms. Please refer to our article From digital denial to digital first.

But a digital first strategy needs to make business sense. There is no point in delivering to digital platforms if they are not being used by your target audience.

And that is why you need to continually monitor how your target audience is accessing news so that you can adapt and change to ensure you are able to meet their information needs in the way they require.

Otherwise you will probably lose that audience, and more aware and alert media organisations that are monitoring changing audience behaviour might take your place.

If it makes sense to adopt a digital first strategy – and it probably will, then the decision will also involve changes in how news is produced and how decisions are made.

You will need to introduce new workflows based around a news ‘superdesk’ acting as a centralised ‘command-and-control’ for the news operation. New roles and responsibilities may have to be introduced – from existing resources. Please refer to our article Convergence: transforming news production.

Central to this will be a planning editor who will take your unique editorial proposition of original in-depth journalism and ensure there is a steady flow of high-quality news and current affairs items designed to meet the information needs of your target audience.

Please refer to the module about forward planning for media organisations. At this stage you will have taken your first steps towards introducing a digital first strategy.

But let’s return to the theme of the first article in this series about setting up a media business.

I likened a media business to a table with four legs. Each leg having to be as sturdy as the other to ensure the table (the media business) doesn’t wobble.

• Leg one is identifying the target audience and its information needs.
• Leg two is establishing a market differential with original, in-depth, issue-led journalism.
• Leg three is adapting to changing audience behaviour and monitoring the market as set out in this article.
• So now let’s move on to leg four, our media organisation’s values. Please refer to the article Winning audience trust and loyalty.

Related articles

From digital denial to digital first

Convergence: transforming news production

Winning audience trust and loyalty

The post Adapting to changing audience behaviour first appeared on Media Helping Media.

The corporate plan is the most important tool in a media chief executive’s toolbox. Without it the media organisation can become lost and directionless.

But with a strong corporate plan, staff and management are brought together, become a positive focus for change, and drive the media business forward.

So it’s important to get it right. This is how to do it.

Writing a corporate plan should make running your media operation easier not more complicated, so don’t make the process complex.

The corporate plan should set out the vision for the media organisation, identify the target audience and its information needs, clarify who does what and why they do it, and set clear objectives that are cascaded down through every department and unit and which include every individual.

Corporate plans should be for a specified time period – too short and they don’t allow you to identify core and long-term value; too long and, over time, they become outdated and irrelevant. Five years is a realistic time-frame.

The more comprehensive and inclusive the discussion about the corporate plan is, the more likely it is that it will be realistic and achievable.

However, it’s not possible to include every member of your staff in the drafting process, so make sure the people you invite to discuss and draft the corporate plan are representative of a wide variety of views in your news organisation.

Select a moderator for the process who is a friend of the organisation, but does not have a vested interest in one part of it or another.

Setting out your unique differential

Start by doing a realistic market scan so you know who your audiences are, what competition you have, the values your staff and mangers need to demonstrate, and what your unique market differential is.

Then distil all of that into one readily-understood, easy to communicate sentence which you can use as the basis of your corporate plan.

This sentence or phrase is essentially a mission statement, so make sure every word merits a place in it, and that the mission statement covers everything you do or would like to do.

Make sure the mission statement is ambitious enough to be challenging, but realistic enough to be potentially achieved.

An example of such a statement might be “To make appealing content for the people with a well-trained, well managed staff using a variety of funding sources”.

Next, expand each part of the phrase and explain what it means in practice.

In the example above, describe what “making appealing content for the people” actually means in bullet points. Identify targets for each of the bullet points which can be measured with a time frame.

At the end of this process, you will have established what you hope to achieve over the lifetime of your corporate plan and a framework for how to measure your progress against it.

Making your corporate plan relevant

Now you have a corporate plan it needs to be translated into an action plan.

Your senior management team should identify the resources (human, material etc.) they need in order to deliver the corporate plan on a divisional or directorate level.

This document should also contain a more detailed description of the major activity to be carried out in the first year to support the corporate plan, and an outline for the second and third years. Each director now has an individual work plan.

The document should also describe what each of the units plans to do along with measurable targets for each unit and the resources needed. Each unit manager now has an individual work plan.

You now have a divisional plan. Each unit manager now discusses with each member of staff a work plan with measurable targets and objectives for the year ahead. This can also be linked to performance related pay if required.

Each member of staff now has an individual work plan which is directly related to the corporate plan with individual, unit, divisional and corporate objectives

The post Preparing a media corporate plan first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Failure to recognise and keep up with changing audience behaviour is one of the most common reasons for media organisations struggling.

Continually monitoring how content is being consumed by the audience, and responding quickly to technological and market opportunities, is essential.

The four scenarios

The four attitudes to digital news production, news gathering and news dissemination are digital denial, digital parallel, digital enhanced, and digital first.

Some media managers refuse to accept that there is a digital audience which needs to be served.

Others become digital evangelists who make production decisions that are not always backed with firm business logic.

Some prefer to focus on the old ways of working, and give little consideration to the digital audience and market.

Of course, each newsroom will have a different approach, based on local business logic, legacy issues, and political and cultural factors.

However, one fact is clear; without a converged/integrated newsroom, it’s difficult to make the most of the digital opportunities that might exist.

And although the essential elements of newsroom convergence might be similar for all news organisations, each solution has to be crafted according to local needs, based on solid business data that informs and justifies every suggested change.

Please refer to our article “Creating a converged news operation”.

Let’s look at the four typical scenarios. As you do, try to work out which scenario best describes your media house.

Digital denial

• This is when there is no clear vision from the senior management about why newsroom convergence/integration is important, which often results in there being no buy-in from senior editors, and resistance from many.
• There will have been a failure to invest in the digital technology required to produce content for use on multiple platforms/devices, and there will be little awareness of audience needs and changing audience behaviour.
• Management and staff are stuck in a time warp, bogged down with legacy issues, doing what they have always done, and living in a false comfort zone.

Digital parallel

• Management acknowledges the digital needs of the audience but fails to realise its importance.
• They will usually ask a couple of people to build a website and upload video from its main TV shows.
• This operation will often not be connected to the newsroom. It might even be on a different floor. There might be little to no editorial supervision.
• At times the online version will be a copy and paste version of what was broadcast, there will be no added value in terms of interactive assets that help explain the stories. There will be no user engagement.
• The result will be a rather dull repetition of the TV output, often text heavy, updated once or twice a day, and offering no compelling reason for the audience to visit or return.

Digital enhanced

• In some cases there is an online, multimedia and social media team embedded in the newsroom made up of trained journalists who are part of the news operation. In these cases the on-air, online and mobile versions are all linked.
• There will be an attempt, often made during the morning meeting, to select the top three stories that require some added value online in terms of timelines, interactive maps, infographics, fact boxes, comments etc.
• The source content will be much the same, but the user experience will differ depending on the platforms used by the audience.
• Social sharing and encouraging the audience to comment will be a central part of this strategy.
• There will be a healthy buzz in the newsroom. Journalists will be keen to see how the audience responds, and, after monitoring that interaction, will use the material to build on the interest generated.
• As a result new angles will come to light and be developed. The output on all platforms/devices will feel fresh, relevant and timely.

Digital-first

• This is where the newsroom operates around a central superdesk or hub acting as the main command and control unit for all output.
• There will be shared forward planning. Stories will be created in advance for all output areas with carefully planned cross-promotion.
• Interactivity will be dynamic, meaning that it will be controlled and updated from the newsrooms central database.
• It will be built into detachable, shareable and embeddable multimedia assets, rich in links to background information, which the audience can take away to their own preferred social media space in order to extend the conversation.
• That total user-engagement will be monitored by the social media team and fed back into the news production process so that the output continually reflects the changing needs/concerns/questions posed by the target audience.
• The digital-first converged newsroom will work closely with business development, technological development, and sales and marketing to ensure that any opportunities are fully exploited for the benefit of both the audience and the brand.

Digital evolution

I have worked with all four models in varying forms, helping them evolve to meet audience needs. Some media organisations, sadly, make a start on introducing convergence and then give up.

They sometimes blame the technology rather than their own inability to adapt. And there will be those who take comfort in retreating back to the known and dragging others with them.

But the challenge for media managers is massive. To survive they need to ensure that they have a plan for remaining relevant to changing audience demands while protecting their existing business.

The best strategy for survival and prosperity is a fully converged/integrated news operation delivering content to whatever device the users turn to for information.

The principle is clear – but news organisations should accept that there is no quick out-of-the-box one-size-fits-all solution.

Yes, it is possible to learn from what other organisations have tried successfully. But every media business has its own particular problems and opportunities.

They will need a bespoke strategy, tailored to their exact situation, in order to meet the changing needs of their own target audience.

The post From digital denial to digital first first appeared on Media Helping Media.