Cultural transformation is the greatest need during challenging times

Conference Blog | 29 August 2023

By Paula Felps

Ideas Blog Editor

INMA

Nashville, Tennessee, United States

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The news media industry is in the midst of a storm, and to survive that storm publishers must change their strategies.

“Lots of things are happening in the industry,” Gaston Serralta, co-founder and CEO of Dosunos, a digital media strategy company in Argentina, told attendees at the INMA Latin American News Media Summit. The industry faces more challenges and changes than anyone could have anticipated just a few years ago.

“Not only Artificial Intelligence, but the free press is also in danger. There is fake news; there are outlets that should not be free and do whatever they want and connect with their audiences. There is a lack of funds. We have these internal problems.”

Gaston Serralta, co-founder and CEO of Dosunos in Argentina, listed current challenges to the news media company.

With so much turmoil and so many problems to address, it’s often difficult for leaders to know where to focus their efforts. And what Dosunos has discovered in its work with news companies is that while many companies focus on digital transformation, the biggest need is often for cultural transformation. Serralta said that of all the challenges he sees, communication is the one that recurs most frequently.

“It’s probably the one that most hurts us because it’s not only the most common one, but it’s also the one that most causes problems in our organisations,” he said, adding that a good solution is to co-create, which is “allowing [us to] create certain processes together and not make it worse for each other.”

That also means eliminating silos between departments and eliminating teams that don’t collaborate with other teams. For example, he said, a technology project to launch an application needs participation and insights from the commercial team.

“Usually the commercial teams are the last ones to know about the projects that are being launched. So how can we find new ways of selling or connecting to audiences if they are the last ones to know about the launches?” he questioned.

The biggest need at most news media companies is cultural transformation, Serralta told INMA members.

Serralta urged publishers to use collective ideation and create small work groups. These teams should all be connected with other teams to encourage the exchange of ideas.

“And we have to listen to the audiences,” he said. “We have to pay attention to what the audience is looking for, we have to know what they need, and we have to bring them solutions.”

Data has become an inevitable part of the newsroom, but Serralta said newsrooms are missing out on opportunities to use it properly.

“It’s not only about measuring on a daily basis. It’s not about measuring productivity. It’s about doing things [with that information],” he said. “We have to use these tools … and put them in the perspective of where we want to go.

“It’s not only about measuring. We have to establish objectives. And we’re only going to reach these objectives if we have clear communication.”

To that end, he encourages leaders to go back to basics and think about how they are communicating with audiences and amongst themselves as a team.

“We have to establish very clear objectives, making every area participate in the creation and how to use technology so that everything can work better,” Serralta said, encouraging them to keep the big picture in mind: “So focus on what is important and not only on what is urgent.”