Transformation looks different at every news company. For some, foundational business shifts are crucial. For others, it’s all about culture.

During the recent INMA Newsroom Transformation Master Class, presented by the Newsroom Transformation Initaitive, media leaders from Stuff Masthead Publishing, OVB Media, Rede Gazeta, CoGenerate, and Human Journalism Network discussed the importance of having the right structure — and the right culture — to support transformation.

The conscious uncoupling of Stuff 

A media company looking for ways to better integrate their business, find a “one-size-fits-all” solution for all its different products and be all things to everyone should not follow in the path of Stuff in New Zealand.

Having only one newsroom no longer worked, Joanna Norris, managing director of Stuff Masthead Publishing, said. Instead, the company decided to build two separate businesses and two separate teams completely from scratch. It split into two operations: Stuff Digital and Masthead Publishing.

By separating the finances of the two businesses, they could really see where they were applying their resources and how it affected the business.

“That allowed us to make decisions much more freely and rely on the strategic focus of each part of the business,” Norris said.
Norris recommends any business considering this kind of uncoupling to split as quickly and cleanly as possible since shared resources complicate roles and responsibilities.

“If we had our time over again, we would have gone faster and further earlier than we did,” Norris said. “We really did challenge ourselves, we took a bold leap, we stayed true to our ethos of following no one and ultimately the thing that was important to both teams and remains core to the work that we all do is that we stay committed to journalism that makes New Zealand better, always. And by splitting, it has not changed that philosophy.”

Uniting and realigning separate newsrooms at OVB

In early 2021, OVB Media began working to unify the previously separate newsrooms, starting with three key steps:

1. Setting a common goal: Both newsrooms were given the shared objective of reaching 20,000 active users, regardless of whether they were print or digital subscribers.
2. Aligning strategies: The company implemented a unified subscription strategy across all its portals, ensuring that both digital and print teams worked towards the same KPIs.
3. Reorganising management: The reporting lines were unified under a single management structure to facilitate better coordination and decision-making.

The unification process, while ultimately successful, was not without its hurdles, Florian Schiller, managing director at OVB, said. To address the infighting and competition, OVB organised offsite meetings where key team members could openly discuss and resolve their differences.

This initiative, known as the “Ising Task Force,” proved to be a turning point, fostering better communication and collaboration.

“It was fascinating,” Schiller said. “We found out it’s all about communication. And we said, OK, in three months we’re going to meet again. It’s not a one-time thing, because I don’t ever want it to escalate it so much again.”

The format of the quarterly meetings is to start by looking at what went wrong in the last three months and identifying problems. Then, the task force looks at what’s ahead and what the next steps should be in the coming three months to keep the newsroom moving ahead on its transformation journey.

Once OVB adopted that approach, Schiller said, “the mood dramatically shifted in the newsrooms.”

Adopting a digital-first strategy at Rede Gazeta

In 2019, Brazil’s Rede Gazeta embarked on a significant transition by eliminating its print operations to adopt a digital-first strategy. This bold move was led by Eduardo Lindenberg de Azevedo, the company’s director of innovation.

This carefully strategised process involving a dedicated team tasked with redesigning the company’s operations and product offerings to better align with digital realities.

"That small team ... had a lot of operational freedom,” Lindenberg de Azevedo said. “So they were directed to benchmark, and we had consulting services, but they had a lot of independence to decide on the new products and processes.”

One of the most significant challenges was overcoming the resistance to change within the newsroom. Many journalists and staff members were accustomed to the traditional print-centric workflow, which influenced not only their day-to-day tasks but also their professional identities.

Lindenberg de Azevedo noted the difficulty of shifting mindsets: "Changing people’s minds was much harder than anticipated. I don’t think that we have managed to retrain and change all the mindsets even four years down the road."

CoGenerate highlights the impact of age-diverse newsrooms

Working to bridge the age divide in our society is a social impact non-profit called CoGenerate. Its mission is to support older and younger people who work together to co-create a better future.

Age-related tensions are common in many workplaces and they show up in newsrooms as well, according to CoGenerate’s Marci Alboher, 58, vice president of narrative strategy and thought leadership, and Duncan Magidson, 30, digital communications specialist.

Alboher and Magidson offered some suggestions in creating age diverse newsrooms:

1. Share the power: When newsrooms have journalists sharing bylines, leaders should consider putting younger and older journalists together on stories.
2. Give younger journalists opportunities to lead and grow: “Outside the newsroom, give up-and-comers the opportunity to represent your organisation at conferences, industry events like this one, and in leadership training opportunities,” Magidson said.
3. Listen to the youngest staffers and the veterans.
4. Offer phased retirement programs: Consider keeping older staffers around longer with part-time opportunities and encore career options before full retirement.
5. Accept that ageism runs both ways.

“No one is immune from generalisation about age groups,” Alboher said. “We hear so many versions of ‘older people won't learn the new technology’ to ‘younger people aren’t loyal.’ Age is never the only thing in the room.”

Human Journalism Network encourages healthy tension

Tension is often listed as a challenge when undergoing a newsroom or business transformation, but Chani Guyot, founder of Human Journalism Network, offers a shift in perspective.

“I believe tensions are necessary,” Guyot said, but clarified there is a difference between good and bad tensions. For example, an editor or reporter with an ego can be detrimental to the newsrooms.

Newsrooms should have tension, Guyot said. If they do not, it might be due to a lack of diversity or that the work environment is not conducive to idea sharing. If reporters or other staff are not comfortable speaking their mind, open and safe conversations will not flow. The lack of certain conversations could lead to missed opportunities to addressing or uplighting voices within your community or audience.

Guyot’s recommendations for fostering healthy tensions include practicing active listening and promoting empathy and understanding.

Managing change is not a one-way plan but requires ego-free leadership, creativity and shared collaboration within the newsroom and journalism industry, Guyot said. Editors can be leaders and voices of reason during uncertain ties when shaping teams and editorial vision by supporting a healthy, learning and unlearning work culture while refining their products, processes and people.

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