Last Updated: March 02, 1999
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Getting what
you want and need
Advice to editors: If at first you don’t succeed, try reading your strategic
goals statement.
Publishers were asked how editors can get what they want and need from
their bosses. Reid Ashe, publisher of The Tampa Tribune, summarized the
key point: “In simplest terms: Agree on strategic goals, and show how your
request relates to them.
“It also helps if you can show you’re eliminating activities that don’t
relate to those goals,” he said.
Mike Maidenberg, publisher of the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald agreed:
“What works best for me is a well-reasoned argument, but this presupposes
that the editor is in alignment with the strategic goals of the newspaper.
A well-reasoned argument for putting a reporter in Washington or London
would not go very far here; but if it were assigning resources to coverage
in northwest Minnesota, which is seeing population growth, that would be
a different matter.
“ ‘Well-reasoned’ means clearly describing the request, showing the
benefits, and answering the obvious questions,” he said.
Much has been written in recent years about the growing gap between
news and business viewpoints. Bridging that gap, Maidenberg said, is not
“a question of technique. If an editor does not keenly understand or is
fundamentally at odds with the strategy, his or her requests will run aground.”
“There must be a law of perversity at work in the newspaper business,”
said Heath Meriwether, publisher of the Detroit Free Press. “As an editor-turned-publisher,
I’m most impressed when the editor makes the business case for the editorial
improvements, suggesting how the improvements will help advance our business
as well as editorial purposes. Conversely, or perversely, as someone who
has worked as an editor with publishers who came from the business side,
I often found it effective to appeal to the editorial virtues of those
publishers, to suggest to them they were helping make an important contribution
to journalism. In either case, it’s important to see that the editor has
done her or his homework.”
Ah, yes, homework — a point emphasized by other publishers, who want
details along with the big picture. Go in prepared to answer specific questions
on costs and effects.
Arnold H. Garson, president and publisher of the Argus Leader in Sioux
Falls, S.D., offers a list of dos and don’ts:
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DO give me the market, readership and even anecdotal information that supports
the case you’re trying to make.
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DO give me a reasonable and efficient plan to achieve the goal. Don’t pad
it or underestimate what it will take.
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DO give me choices: Plan A, Plan B, maybe even Plan C. We may not be able
to do everything at once. Doing things in small steps can work.
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DO reach beyond the news department to address the business implications
of your plan. Make sure that you’ve included the folks in advertising,
marketing, circulation and production. Often, these and other departments
will be able to make a relevant contribution to the planning. At the very
least, their interests need to be considered.
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DO consider timing. If we’ve just completed the budget process, and the
editor decides that she/he would like to propose additional news hole or
staffing for a specific purpose in the coming year, there had better be
a damn good reason why it didn’t come up during budgeting.
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DON’T be afraid to dream or think big. A big idea that will strengthen
our franchise or make an impact in the community is something to be cherished.
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DON’T fail to keep your publisher informed. Even during the embryonic stages,
your publisher will want to know what you are working on. Your publisher
may even enjoy a chance to participate in the planning, discussion and
brainstorming that shapes the idea.
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DON’T dawdle. Be prepared, if your plan is approved, to deliver the results
on schedule, maybe even ahead of schedule. Nothing is more irritating than
deadlines not met. Editors understand this when it comes to producing the
daily newspaper. They need to take the same approach in dealing with product
enhancements.
Smart editors create allies in other departments before laying out the
plan to the publisher.
Catherine Shen, vice president/strategic development, for Horvitz Newspapers,
said: “For me, what makes an editor’s pitch convincing (and I’ve been in
that editor’s place many times) is evidence that the editor understands
the total picture of what the newspaper is for a reader and what impact
any plans might have on all the other departments of the paper.
“For example, let’s say an editor has an idea for a new weekly section
called ‘Now!’ In that editor’s presentation, besides what the content would
be and where that content would come from and how much that content would
cost in resources, I also want to know what readers in particular are being
targeted and why, how it would fit into our production cycle, how much
news hole and how many pages the editor has in mind, ideas for marketing
it, and reasons advertisers would support it.”
That “presupposes that the editor talks to the other departments and
is aware of their issues, and is willing to listen to naysayers (after
all, the circulation department is often more on top of what’s literally
happening with readers than the news department.). It’s pretty hard for
a publisher to resist a project that has the support of most of the departments.
There’s also no substitute for real passion and a willingness to stick
out one’s neck.
“I guess it boils down to the fact that an editor has to approach the
role with a ‘whole-newspaper’ mentality,” Shen said. “A newspaper is more
than news content to its audience; it’s also where they find advertising,
entertainment and a sense of community. In fact, editors at small newspapers
probably don’t have much patience with these discussions, because they
do most everything.”
Even smarter editors create allies before they need support on a project.
Dorothy Bland, publisher of the Fort Collins Coloradoan, offered suggestions
to editors on how they can improve relations with other departments:
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Encourage others to submit story ideas and make use of them.
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Ask your market department for market research results and find ways to
incorporate results into new coverage
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Invite circulation staff to attend news meetings and post sales results
daily.
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Make sure your newsroom understands how they fit into the company’s mission/vision.
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Encourage news staffers to work alongside others in community-building
projects to help with team bonding.
If you are unable to take the advice outlined here at your paper, take
heart; change is hard. It will take time.
As Niccolò Machiavelli wrote in “The Prince”: “There is nothing
more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain
in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order
of things.”
Kees is editor and program director of The Freedom Forum Pacific
Coast Center, San Francisco.
