Media leaders from multiple companies offered some of their best advice on change management during the recent Newsroom Transformation Initiative Master Class. 

Here’s what they had to say:

Lesson No. 1: Create a sense of urgency

Eduardo Lindenberg de Azevedo, director of innovation at Rede Gazeta in Brazil, walked the audience through what going digital-only in 2019 taught his organisation about transformation.

“People change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings,” he said, citing The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations.

For Rede Gazeta, making the change required a sense of urgency, coalition-building, training and reinforcement. Still, Lindenberg de Azevedo said, actually changing processes and people's minds was much harder than anticipated. 

Build in time and transparency, he said.

Lesson No. 2: Talk not just about what to do but how to do it

NTM, which has 17 newsrooms in Sweden, has a comprehensive newsroom strategy: fewer but better stories, a focus on seven prioritised topics and a goal of reaching 30-to 50-year-olds. 

But the lesson that stuck with me was this: “We have talked a lot about what we should do but not how it’s done.”

Jens Pettersson, head of editorial development at NTM, said that’s where the “friendly SWAT teams” come in. Subject-matter experts from the corporate team work with the newsrooms on a roadmap that leads to an action plan: “Three things to boost the title, which workshops are needed, timeline, and follow-up.”

They identify and discuss the what, of course, but also spend time on the how, leading to better outcomes, Pettersson said.

Lesson No. 3: Release the power of people — and trust that they will deliver

Lena K. Samuelsson, a senior advisor for Schibsted, has been at the forefront of newsroom transformation in several of her roles and had a lot of great advice. That included:

• Stay true: Change but invest in what makes you distinct.

• Be open … most things are not a secret.

• Create a common ground, and then you can move together.

• Be bold: We’re up to some tough competition.

I especially loved her advice on empowering those around her. She said to seek out the change agents, and others will come along.

“We have to put people together with all kinds of competencies,” she said. “Trust people and they will deliver. They always do.”

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