Last Updated: December 29, 2000
Printer-friendly version
Management
advice
Assign yourself to help your assignment editors
Young editors can shape mood and morale in the newsroom,
but they need to know how to have the tough conversations and criticize
for positive results
By Edward Miller
An assigning editor on a metro newspaper had worked as a reporter for
10 years before moving up to run a bureau. Only three years later he had
had enough of management.
“It feels like work coming to work now,” he explained to his boss as
he asked to return to reporting.
It’s not an isolated case; you can find it all over the country. Someone’s
first management job is supposed to be the way up; too often it’s the way
out.
Why would anyone in her right mind agree to be an assigning editor?
Hours and stress increase with the responsibilities. Recognition invariably
decreases. The higher salary hardly compensates for the greater risks.
Is it worth it?
It should be. Entry-level management jobs are where the most important
day-to-day decisions are made about what stories are assigned and how well
they are covered and edited. Senior editors might have more influence on
the final package, but they are dependent on the quality of the assignments
and editing upstream.
Equally important is the assigning editor’s influence on the staff.
To most reporters, photographers, and artists, the assigning editors are
the only “management” they ever work with directly. Those relationships
shape the overall mood and morale of the newsroom, and ultimately, the
quality of the newspaper.
How can senior editors improve the management skills of newly appointed
editors? Here are four places to begin:
Policies and procedures
Assigning editors administer the “rules” in every newsroom, yet few
know what the rules really are. To test that theory, ask any three
assigning editors to spell out your policies on vacations, sick pay and
comp time. You’ll probably get a variety of answers. Yet these are
the front-line personnel issues assigning editors have to deal with all
the time. If you haven’t updated your newsroom “policy book” in a
while, it’s time. The next step is to coach assigning editors to
anticipate and administer the inevitable exceptions and deviations.
This nut-and-bolts work isn’t very glamorous, but doing it well is essential.
Motivation theory
In every workshop I do, I ask editors, “What motivates people?”
Some put “money” high on the list, but to most journalists, salary is an
entitlement, not a motivator. There are other factors — namely competence
and recognition —that are far more powerful as motivators. New editors
need to understand these and other insights about what motivates people.
Editors can’t be satisfied with people who just do their jobs; they need
to teach people how to do their jobs better. That means understanding
what builds and sustains self-motivation.
Tough conversations
Telling a 50-something reporter his work is slipping is never easy,
especially for a young editor in her first month on the job. Telling
that young editor that she may not be suited for management after all is
not easy either. Nor is telling the boss that he is interfering in
your work when he tinkers with the front-page design. How to plan
and manage difficult conversations can be taught; it requires patience
and a good teacher. Otherwise, these conversations are handled badly,
or worse, avoided. Either way, the difficulty is perpetuated.
Positive criticism
A confession: I used to say there is no such thing as “constructive
criticism,” that all criticism is inherently negative. That’s not very
helpful to those editors who every day have to evaluate someone’s work
and show them how to improve.
Criticizing is easy; what’s difficult is getting the recipient to listen,
understand and act positively. When the transaction becomes a contest of
wills between an opinionated critic and a defensive recipient, it usually
fails to meet the critic’s objective — changing someone’s behavior or performance.
If you read nothing else on management in the next month, read “The
Power of Positive Criticism” by Hendrie Weinsinger. It’s a handbook of
what works and what doesn’t. Once you’ve read it, ask assigning editors
to review it as a “must-read” for any new editor.
Senior editors have many important tasks, but none more important than
the management training of assigning editors. If you have tips to share
or questions to ask, contact me at miller@newsroomleadership.com. I’ll
respond to everyone, online or in print.
Miller is an associate of The Poynter Institute and a newsroom coach.
