The Toronto Star has taken some bold moves recently by investing in people. One way was by tripling its training budget.

Among the projects is what Executive Managing Editor Jim Travers calls a graduate course in newspaper design, offered three days a month.

Other Star efforts include optional four-day work weeks, relieving senior people from weekend duty and training interns to substitute on tasks like monitoring police radios.

"We’ve been battered by huge workloads. Like all major newspapers with an aging work force, our people don’t always feel the business is as rewarding as it used to be," he says. "We want to create a culture of being enthusiastic about the business."

Talk about "the culture" of the newsroom is common now, and that in itself is a big change, although such terms have been bandied about corporate America for some time. The Dayton (Ohio) Daily News relied upon a "change facilitator" during turmoil created by a newsroom reorganization.

No way to overcommunicate

Conducting meetings standing up — intended to focus participants on quickly getting to the point — is one tool used at The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C., where half the newsroom staff of 68 turned over in a two-year period, says Managing Editor John X. Miller. In the name of openness, those meetings also occur in the middle of the newsroom so any staff member can join.

"Communicating is the most important thing we do," Miller says.

Dayton’s change facilitator sums it up succinctly: "We learned the hard way that there’s no way you can overcommunicate."

James Lloyd, who recently added section editor to his duties as change facilitator, advocates sending the message through different, and overlapping, channels: by paper or electronic memo, through voice mail, and in conversation. And top managers hold a quarterly meeting to update the staff and give members a chance to air questions and concerns.

"It’s amazing how much repetition is needed to get the message through," Lloyd says. "And don’t think you can make change pleasant for people. We tried too hard to smooth the way. All you can do is get through it as fast as you can."

Newsrooms offer more training

Toronto’s experience in increasing training to keep its employees energized and ready for change is clearly gaining a foothold in the industry. While seminars at the American Press Institute, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and elsewhere remain staples, more newsrooms now arrange brown-bag lunches. There, reporters kick around narrative techniques, copy editors tweak headlines, and specialists share new approaches to database investigations.

"Years ago, it was unheard of for anyone to give any training," says newsroom consultant Sharon L. Peters. "I went through 21 years in the news business with only one training session. Now there are lots of people like me visiting newsrooms. People in the industry are looking outside for advice instead of saying ‘we’re different, there’s nothing like the news business, those principles that corporations follow don’t apply to us.’"

Behind these strategies — many borrowed from other industries — is the idea that news people will be more productive if they understand clearly the purpose of their work, get adequate training and feel enthusiastic about management’s vision of what the newspaper should be. But what’s to be done for reporters and editors who do not like the changes that have swept their business and no longer support that vision?

"Get another job," is the grim advice of Dr. Paul J. Rosch, president of the American Institute of Stress in Yonkers, N.Y. He was a consultant on a survey of newsroom stress for the Associated Press Managing Editors in the ’80s. Rosch says there are useful strategies to manage some newsroom stresses, but others simply have no cure.

"The older editors and reporters I talk to are very disgruntled about the changes of the past two decades," Rosch says. "The fact of the matter is, there are some stresses you can do something about, and some that are beyond your control. It’s important to know the difference."

Former ASNE president Robert H. Giles, author of the "Newsroom Management Handbook," commissioned the newsroom stress survey when he led APME. The results noted the invigoration that can come with competitive and deadline pressures. That’s still true, he says, but the newspaper business has changed dramatically. Giles, now director of the Freedom Forum’s Media Studies Center in New York, saw the changes as he moved from Akron, Ohio, to Rochester, N.Y., to Detroit.

"There are decisions being made today that are driven by the publisher’s office or by the business side that force or encourage the newsroom to do things they otherwise wouldn’t want to do," Giles says. "The reaction is: ‘This is not what I got in this business for. It makes my stomach ache or my head hurt or is the reason to drink an extra glass of wine at dinner.’ "

Another difference Giles sees, this one good, is a more flexible attitude toward the demands of family life. "More and more I see the newsroom culture changing. There’s a respect for the needs of family."

Peters, the newsroom consultant, also sees more flexible work schedules — for some staffers.

"Virtually every editor in America encourages people to have a more balanced life. The problem is, the editors are still working 50-to-60-hour weeks," Peters says. "And many (staff members) emulate the top manager."

Florida Today Editor Judy Christie struggles to set a good example. She describes an uphill battle to force herself and her troops to manage time carefully, to take days off after intensive efforts and to use lunch hours to exercise.

"We’re all guilty of thinking the paper won’t get out without us," Christie says. "But if we’re going to keep good people, we’ve got to communicate that it’s good to have a life outside the office."

Philadelphia Daily News Editor Zachary Stalberg loses patience with the talk about balancing work and personal lives by cutting hours at the office. "I think in the abstract it’s a sweet idea," says Stalberg, who may be willing to state out loud what other editors practice but prefer not to elucidate.

"I’m not looking to drive people off a window ledge, but if my reporters care enough to work 18 hours on a story, that’s terrific. I’m not going to worry a whole lot about balance."

For Judy Christie’s tips on an editor’s balancing role and a list of innovations at newspapers around the country in training, reducing stress and perks, consult ASNE’s Web site. It’s available at http://www.asne.org/ideas/ideas.htm

Schwed is a freelance writer and editor living in Atlanta.