How well would you rate your organisation on enacting cultural change? 

That’s the question I posed at the start of a recent Webinar, asking the audience to pick between: “very well,” indicating a culture that is extremely adaptable and open to change; “OK,” meaning they can make needed changes, but it takes time to get buy-in and adoption; and “poor,” describing an organisation resistant to change.

The results: Not one respondent rated their organisation “very well.” They overwhelmingly picked “OK” at 81%, followed by “poor” at 19%.

While it stands to reason that anyone doing very well might not attend a Webinar called How to Change Newsroom Culture, it’s also clear publishers have work to do to create the kind of nimble and flexible culture that embraces innovation and change.

Changing newsroom culture has been a consistent theme in conversations I’ve had with publishers from around the world since taking on the Newsroom Transformation Initiative in January. They’re interested in understanding how long it takes to make true cultural change and how to overcome obstacles to change.

Read on for some practical advice on the subject, and I’d love to get your thoughts and ideas. E-mail me: amalie.nash@inma.org. 

Amalie

Break down silos, identify the biggest fears 

Louise Story has spent much of her career in roles that put her at the pivotal center of organisational change: at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and as a media consultant. While she says change can be daunting, she reminded the Webinar audience that: “People in journalism actually have some muscles in them that are useful for transformation and cultural change.”

Namely, journalists love to learn new things, and journalists make mistakes — so they may be wired to innovate and willing to make mistakes along the way.

Lessons she offered for digitally transforming and making cultural changes:

• Form cross-disciplinary teams: Bringing in people from other disciplines, from across the newsroom and across the business, can lead to faster results. And often people in different areas of the business have their own cultures, so cross-pollinating can bring in new skillsets and learnings. Relatedly, work to permanently break down the silos that often exist between news, product, and technology.

• Be transparent: Cultural change often stalls when plans are formed behind closed doors and communication is opaque. Whenever possible, when laying out a new strategy, bring people into the process. “People will trust more if they understand more about it,” Story says. Bonus if you have good visuals when you present to your newsroom.

• Do your homework: Whether leadership is new or tenured, there’s often a prevailing sentiment that “we already know what we’re doing.” Step back, learn more, interview people — and even if ultimately the plan reflects what leadership thought all along, the process will lead to greater buy-in.

• Identify the biggest fears: What is making people resist? Find out by talking to them, preferably one-on-one, and thoroughly address those concerns. “Don’t dismiss those concerns,” Story says. “Dig in and examine them. Come back to people with answers.”

• Find ways to involve everyone: When it comes to cultural change, there can be a feeling on the front lines of some organisations that only a small subset of people get to be involved in doing the new, cool things. So figure out how to invite everyone to take part in the change. 

• Agree on the same metrics: It’s hard to make cultural change when different teams or departments don’t agree on the same metrics. There are a lot of metrics to consider, but agree on which will be measured. Tell the story of: Why are we using these metrics and what do they show us?

• End top-down culture: Be clear and communicative and empower people on the front lines to do things on their own. Story argues it’s also important for talent retention.

The topic of resistance to cultural change came up during the Webinar — and again a few days later in the INMA Master Class: Mobile-First News Media Sites. GerBen van ’t Hek, deputy chief-editor at Mediahuis, talked in his presentation about the need for newsrooms to become “relentlessly mobile-first.”

The first question from the audience: Did you get pushback to making changes and how did you tackle that?

“There are always people afraid of change,” he said.

His take: Communicate and explain changes, show the data — but force change as necessary. And success can be a big motivator.

I also loved this turn of phrase: “We never lose. Win or learn.”

Have you made seismic changes to your organisation’s culture? E-mail me amalie.nash@inma.org.

How does an organisation measure its cultural change? 

Making cultural change can be hard. And it’s not easy to measure either.

Patty Michalski, Hearst’s SVP of content strategy and innovation, questioned how newsrooms should measure and track cultural change, noting that the things newsrooms do measure — like audience analytics — are often lagging metrics of whether cultural change is taking root. 

The first step, Story says, is for newsrooms to drill in on what they mean by cultural change, noting the answers often vary by institution. 

A good example she offered of a measurement to track: All organisations want their newsrooms to become more data-oriented and integrate the right metrics into workflows. So an organisation can design or use a tool for journalists to understand the metrics — and then measure adoption rate of that tool over the course of a year. 

“Cultural change can sound scary, but being that specific can help show what it means,” Story said.

Michalski says Hearst also works to identify things like: Are people trying new things? Are we hearing new ideas? 

“It’s a constant evolution,” she says. “It’s not that we go somewhere, get there, and we’ve reached the promised land. We’ll always be teaching and training and evolving.”

How do you track cultural change in your organisation? E-mail me: amalie.nash@inma.org.

Recommended reading list: a few links and insights 

I also wanted to share a few pieces that caught my attention in recent days with links and takeaways. If you want more examples and aren’t already in our Newsroom Transformation Initiative Slack channel, please join the conversation there, too. 

• What is the optimal number of words in a headline?
  

• The Smartocto labs department analysed nearly 30,000 winning headlines from the past year and categorised them into three groups: Short, medium, long. The medium length category — those headlines between 12 and 17 words — is the standout. 

• The average number of words that win is 14, as is the median. 

• Winning headlines usually contain these active verbs: have, want, can, must, know.

• Next Gen News: Understanding the Audiences of 2030
  

• A gap exists and is growing between the news experience the next generation wants and what they’re currently being provided with.

• Young consumers are constantly sifting through information. They want simple, short, and low-effort ways to keep up with and discover relevant information without feeling overwhelmed. 

• Young consumers seek information from the sources they trust. They weigh three subfactors on trustworthiness: credibility, affinity, and transparency of intention.

• Facebook and X gave up on news. LinkedIn wants to fill the void
  

• According to a Pew survey released last November, a little under a quarter of LinkedIn users say they get their news on the site.

• The assignment editor for The Washington Post‘s social team says her team has in recent months started to take LinkedIn more seriously as a traffic source. It launched a newsletter on the platform called Post Grad, which has a quarter of a million readers.

• Social media analyst Matt Navarra says it’s not impossible to imagine LinkedIn evolving into a more mainstream feeling social network as it becomes a destination for news content.

Mark your calendars

Upcoming INMA events that shouldn’t be missed:

• April 10: Beyond Text: Coming to Grips with Multimodal Storytelling, presented by INMA Product & Tech Initiative Lead Jodie Hopperton. Register here.

• April 22-26: Join me at the INMA World Congress of News Media. This year’s conference includes a Newsroom Transformation Workshop on April 26. Would love to see you there! Register here for the conference, workshops, study tours and more.

About this newsletter

Today’s newsletter is written by Amalie Nash, based in Denver, Colorado, United States, and lead for the INMA Newsroom Transformation Initiative. Amalie will share research, case studies, and thought leadership on the topic of bringing newsrooms into the business of news.

This newsletter is a public face of the Newsroom Transformation Initiative by INMA, outlined here. E-mail Amalie at amalie.nash@inma.org or connect with her on INMA’s Slack channel with thoughts, suggestions, and questions.

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