With circulation plummeting, online revenues not catching fire quickly enough, and newsroom culture still named as the top need for change, Yoni Greenbaum says it's time to clean house of senior editors who "claim that they get 'it' but really don’t."
Yoni wants an editor who models the change we'd like to see in the world. A good example is the News & Record's John Robinson, who is one of the few top editors I know of with a blog on their own newspaper Web site.
It's astonishing to me that senior editors expect reporters to learn how to record audio, shoot video, post breaking news items, manage discussions or host a blog, and yet they have no idea how to do it themselves. This epitome of hypocrisy is standard fare for newsroom culture.
"All too often, blame for the state of affairs and the lack of progress is placed on line employees such as reporters and desk editors. This needs to end. Change must occur and, I believe, it must occur at the top of our organizations."
Yoni expresses the dirty little secret kept in many newsrooms, which is that our senior editors are failing newspapers. It's their job to increase audiences, and all of the numbers show they're failing. It's their job to foster productive newsroom cultures, and all over the country they continue to fail.
The next time sweeping layoffs are announced, ask yourself why the man or woman in charge isn't sent packing, too.
Comments (4)
Thanks for the mention and link.
Believe me, there have been days when I've thought that I need to be canned. (May come sooner than I wish, too, as our newspaper has just been put up for sale.)
As I wrote on Yoni's site -- thanks for the pointer -- we're held up as an innovative paper, but we haven't gone far enough. It comes down to leadership, money and guts. (As a 55-year-old, I don't want to face the idea that I'm too old.) We need more of those three things.
It's more than understanding technology. It's about listening to the audience and going where they are, instead of expecting them to come where you are.
(As an aside, thanks for the encouragement with Twitter. I've signed up and we're working on getting it going on the site.)
Posted by John Robinson | January 6, 2008 12:51 PM
Posted on January 6, 2008 12:51
I disagree with folks, who say in the comments on Yoni's blog, that there is some age requirement for being the right person to lead.
Being the right person is about actions, not age.
It's tempting to take swipes at those older than us after having long been condescended by newsroom "veterans." But I won't do it. In senior-level meetings, I've heard new journalists derided as "kids" and entire departments described as lacking "an adult." It's awfully short-sighted for a journalist, of all people, to make assumptions about anyone's potential to get things right based solely on something so superficial.
As an aside, I relish being in the room when these ageist comments are made because folks obviously assume I'm older than I really am. Why? Because of my actions. My counter-point is proven without a word spoken.
Posted by Lucas | January 6, 2008 2:01 PM
Posted on January 6, 2008 14:01
"The next time sweeping layoffs are announced, ask yourself why the man or woman in charge isn't sent packing, too."
Funny, that's exactly the question I asked when I got axed in a Media(sorta)News budget slashing at the Santa Cruz Sentinel last June, even though I was one of our most active bloggers/multimedia reporters. About a third of the already-small reporting staff was cut, but no management at all.
Yoni couldn't be more right.
Posted by matt king | January 6, 2008 8:40 PM
Posted on January 6, 2008 20:40
Sounds like too many chiefs, not enough indians... I've been there before... always sucks.
Posted by Stephen Warne | January 10, 2008 1:23 PM
Posted on January 10, 2008 13:23