Last week we touched on how the evaluation of the
staff might be focused to lead to improved quality of the paper. Here
I’d like to discuss another tool that is little utilized by newsroom
supervisors but can be used to increase the quality of the newspaper’s
presentation over time.
If the presentation of the newspaper is a priority, the
topics of collaboration, communication, teamwork, and respect across
departmental lines should all come into play when recruiting,
interviewing, and hiring new staff. And I mean ALL new staff, not just
designers. For example:
• When hiring reporters, editors, or researchers,
managers should ask: How well do you understand visual journalism? What
stories have you worked on in your previous jobs that show us this
awareness? What successes can you point to where collaboration and
communication played a key role, and where photos or graphics had true
meaning or impact for the reader, to complement your text?
• When checking references, ask the previous
employer, or acquaintances, how aware they are of the candidate’s
collaborative skills. Is she a lone wolf, or does she actively seek out
the expertise of photographers, artists, or copy editors as stories are
developing, NOT on deadline.
• When trying out all newsroom job candidates or
testing them on their skills, make sure to give them a chance to show
their awareness of visual storytelling. This doesn’t mean they have to
take pictures or produce informational graphics, but they should be
able to identify prospects for visuals to play an important role in
their storytelling. Ask them: What information on a given topic
deserves to be shown to the reader, rather than told to them in text?
How would this shape the development of his writing or editing? What
would he leave out or put into a story to complement the visuals?
Even if a good candidate for a non-visual staff
position doesn’t quite measure up, if you decide to hire that person
based on their “word skills,” incorporating the visual questions into
the hiring process sends them a signal early on that it’s a priority
for your paper. And it’s something they can start to work on, and seek
help with, from the moment they arrive.
The lesson: Good presentation begins with the development of your staff at the point of origin: hiring.
–All or a portion of this column was originally published in the IFRA newsletter
