WHETHER IT IS THE TREND toward media mergers or the new generation of journalists entering the workforce, one thing is certain: In today’s volatile media environment, quality training is more important than ever.
The ever-increasing marriages of top media companies are redefining the boundaries between journalism and business. The move toward convergence is creating more complex jobs and a new sense of urgency for journalists.
On top of that, news customers are savvier than ever, with higher standards, less patience, and multiple outlets for getting their news.
“We’re in a difficult situation because the readers are demanding more,” said Marty Haag, senior vice president for news at the Dallas-based Belo. “We just can’t afford to have the old mentality that [journalists] will learn by osmosis.”
Haag was one of 18 media professionals who were invited to Poynter earlier this week for a day-and-a-half discussion to assess the training needs for journalists. The group included training and development editors, news managers, college professors, and program directors from the Freedom Forum, American Press Institute, the Maynard Institute, and the National Association of Black Journalists.
“The business is changing so dramatically,” Haag said. “We’re getting to the point where we’re looking for the leaders of tomorrow. And at the center of that discussion are the people. It has to start there.”
But training journalists in today’s multimedia world is no easy task.
A booming economy, low unemployment, and increased competition from Internet companies are making it difficult for traditional news organizations to find and retain quality people. Training may not be part of the corporate strategy and may be one of the first things to be cut. And the kind of training that does occur may not always be the kind of training journalists need the most.
“We train defensively and we train when we must train, but some of the coaching things don’t show up in a bill or a lawsuit so we don’t emphasize training in those areas,” said Joe Grimm, recruiting and development editor for the Detroit Free Press.
A new economic reality for the country’s workforce also means that journalists entering the field can afford to be selective about their employers, said Kathy Warbelow, managing editor for the Austin American-Statesman.
“It’s a seller’s market for talent,” Warbelow said. “I have hired people straight from college who had four or five job offers. For a young journalist, a good training program is more important than the 401K program.”
THE BIGGEST TRAINING CHALLENGE is to remember that, in the end, this is about journalism, said Patti Breckenridge, assistant managing editor of organizational development for The Tampa Tribune.
News organizations routinely provide sexual harassment training, diversity training, convergence training, computer technology training, even driver training, Breckenridge said, but journalism itself is often not included.
“We’re not recognizing training as an industry, and it doesn’t serve us well,” said Gail Bulfin, training and reader editor for the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, when the group’s discussion turned to issues of disconnect between the perceived need for newsroom training and the corporate priorities of news organizations.
To solve some of these issues, the group identified key points for changing the industry’s attitude toward training and suggested possible actions.
Quantifying the Impact of Training
- Establish training as a corporate priority by linking training to productivity.
- Track the effectiveness of training by the impact it has on the time it takes to bring a new employee to job competence.
- Have training participants keep portfolios of their work after attending training to assess its impact.
Train Across Generations
- Make individual assessments for each staffer and provide each a career development plan.
- Incorporate a regular change of assignment to keep the learning process going.
- Meet the development needs of both veteran and young employees by establishing mentoring exchanges in which experienced staffers share industry knowledge and younger staffers share technical expertise.
- Promote change in the newsroom environment by cross training. Break down the job hierarchy by renaming titles and making each job valuable.
Training More Trainers
- Create more trainers by teaching participants how to school others in specific areas (i.e. writing).
- Identify other leaders in the newsroom who can share their expertise.
- Develop a “training the trainers” training kit, which provides guidelines and techniques on effective training.
- Keep the spirit of training alive by creating a partnership for accountability and sustainability among training participants, their direct supervisors, and the individual responsible for funding the training.
- Schedule three-, six-, and nine-month follow-ups with employees who were sent to training sessions.
Important Craft Skills to Be Taught
- Writing (grammar, organization, enterprise, writing on deadline, writing ledes, writing for different media).
- Editing (grammar, coaching, copy editing, headlines, cutlines, tape editing).
- Reporting (interviewing techniques, sourcing, framing, long-term/short-term, reporting for different media).
- Community (internal cross training, organizational values, news values, basic community knowledge, social science approach to community).
- Content knowledge (judiciary, government, schools, transportation, economics of the area).
- Visuals (photography, digital imaging ethics, media production — sound and voice).
- Ethics (general newspaper ethics, cultural ethics, TV, radio, print and online ethics).
- Multimedia ( primers in radio, TV, newspapers, and online; Internet research, how to ask questions online).
- Computer Assisted Reporting (numeracy, spreadsheets, databases).
“People will only stay in a job if they have an opportunity for growth, which can only come from good quality training,” said Patti Smith, vice president and general manager of KVUE TV in Austin, Texas.
