"Word has reached me that you are having fun on the set. This must stop." -- Jack Warner, quoted in "Lauren Bacall By Myself"
Steve Buttry NTNG
Jack Warner sounds like a 21st Century newspaper editor. Working in a newsroom should be fun. Journalists should feel energized by their work. They should look forward to going to work every day. A management cliche is that the supervisor must "light a fire" under workers. That's not necessary in journalism. Journalists come with a fire already lit. They come into the business excited about the creative challenges news presents. The newsroom manager's job is not to light the fire, but to tend it and give it fuel. Inspiring journalists is one of the most important jobs of any newsroom manager. Whether you supervise reporters, editors, photographers, artists, designers, paginators, imagers, librarians or some combination, your success depends on the work of your staff. Journalists often mirror the energy of an enthusiastic leader or the lethargy of a dispirited leader. You should consider whether each action or statement is more likely to nurture or discourage creativity. You should examine whether your actions, statements and attitude are more likely to inspire effort or fuel cynicism. You should ask whether your words and deeds are more likely to make the jobs under you more rewarding or more frustrating. Sometimes you have to bear bad news. Sometimes you have to enforce deadlines, budgets and space restrictions. Sometimes you have to tell unwelcome truths about company policies, a staff member's performance or decisions by you and other editors. You must tell these truths candidly, but that must be a small part of your communication with staff members. Newspaper work should be fun, and editors make a huge contribution to how much staff members enjoy their jobs.
Enjoy your job. No job is perfect, but newsroom leadership positions offer creative, exciting work with interesting, dynamic people. It's also demanding and sometimes thankless work. If you don't enjoy the job, you won't do it well. If you are not happy in the job, identify the issues that make you unhappy. If some of them are in your control, change what you can. Address with your bosses issues that they control. Assess the issues that your bosses won't change or that you and your bosses can't change. Can you place them in context (remember, no job is perfect)? Can you make adjustments so that you can be happy in those circumstances? If not, perhaps you should talk to your bosses about a non-management role. Supervising isn't for everyone. Praise daily. Every supervisor should make a point every day of telling her staff what they have done well. This must be as pressing as the next deadline or the news meeting. However else your day goes to hell, you must praise the good work of your staff. Praise must be specific and prompt and whenever possible delivered in person. "Nice story" or "nice headline" doesn't cut it. Tell the copy editor you really liked the strong verb he used and how much information he squeezed into a one-column head. Tell the photographer how effective the back lighting was in the picture. Tell the reporter you liked the use of dialogue in the climax of the story. Make your praise systematic. Every day praise at least half of the people who work directly for you. If you have multiple levels beneath you, praise at least one person who works indirectly for you. And praise at least one person who doesn't work for you. You may need to criticize, too, but don't mix your praise with your criticism. "I really liked the design of page one, but ..." doesn't count as praise. Turn criticism into challenges. You cannot let substandard work pass unnoticed. But you may not have to point it out. If you didn't like something about a story, photo, graphic, headline or design, ask the staff member what he thought of that particular piece of work. What did he like? What didn't he like? If you agree on what wasn't good, you don't have to criticize. Instead, you help the reporter frame a challenge to address the problem.
Let's say a reporter's writing is dull. You could smash the reporter's spirit and ruin her day by telling her this morning's story was dull and pedestrian. Or you could ask what she thought about this morning's story. If she liked something that you also liked, you can agree, which encourages her in a strength. Ask what she didn't like, too. Chances are if the story was dull, she knows it. Maybe she'll tell you she wishes it had been more lively. You agree and after discussing together why it wasn't more lively, you present a challenge: In this next story, make sure that you finish in time to allow a rewrite that concentrates solely on the verbs. Change passive verbs to active. With each verb, she should ask whether she can find a more specific verb or a stronger verb. The challenge will improve the next story (and probably subsequent stories). Just as important, though, the challenge will energize the reporter and engage you together in the process of improving her writing. If the reporter doesn't agree with your assessment, then you may have to criticize. Do so candidly and then frame the challenge in the same conversation. (Depending on the situation, you may be able to frame the challenge without spelling out the criticism. "I'd like you to use more strong verbs" frames the challenge without saying, "You use too many weak verbs.") The criticism, whether direct or implied, may still sting, but the challenge turns the criticism from a cause to brood into an opportunity to show what the staff member can do. Any time you issue a challenge, follow up and assess how the staff member met the challenge. If he responded strongly, be generous and prompt with your praise. If the improvement was marginal, ask him what he liked and didn't like about his response to the challenge, be candid about what you liked and didn't like and set a new challenge. Turn praise into challenges. Don't challenge just in terms of weaknesses. Challenge your best staff members to become even better. If you absolutely loved a particular piece of work, still ask the staff member what he didn't like about it. Ask about aspirations and together identify challenges that will help accomplished staff members build on their strengths. Challenges energize high-achieving journalists and help them reach new heights. Identify reachable goals. Discuss with staff members their strengths and weaknesses and set goals to help them build on the strengths and overcome the weaknesses. Set long-range goals, such as tackling an investigative project during the coming year. Set mid-range goals, such as bringing more enterprise to daily beat coverage. Set specific immediate goals, such as contacting a couple more sources for today's story. Work with the staff member to achieve the goals. Tell her how well you think she's doing at reaching the goals. If a reporter showed strong enterprise on a daily story by finding and interviewing a person who would be affected by a government agency's decision, praise that work. Don't just say nice job, but note how that effort helped meet the goal you both set. On the other hand, if the reporter just covered the agency's meeting, remind her of the goal and ask whether she can find people who will be affected. Show your excitement. Let your staff see when you are excited about a story, photo, graphic or design. Ask lots of questions. How does the reporter plan to address potential obstacles? What is he learning in his interviews? What direction is the story taking? Have we considered all the possibilities for photos, graphics, sidebars? Do we need to arrange for extra space? Don't reserve your excitement and your praise for the stars on your staff and for the big stories. You expect staff members to be excited about their jobs even if they are writing or shooting for the inside pages. You need to show your excitement to each staff member. Your neglect of a staff member may reinforce his view that he's stuck in an unimportant job. Get physical. Physically show your energy and your enthusiasm. You can do this without getting silly and without crossing any lines of propriety. And you can do it within your own personality. Don't pump your fist in the air over an exciting development if that doesn't feel comfortable to you. But if you would do it on the softball field, do it in the newsroom when the occasion calls for it. Maybe a high five, a handshake, a thumbs-up or brief applause is more your style. At the very least, smile. Don't overdo the "good cop" routine. Supervisors often have to carry out unpleasant policies or directives from higher editors or corporate offices. It's easy and tempting to play good-cop-bad-cop, with the top editors or publisher as the bad cop and the sympathetic mid-level supervisor as the good cop. Sometimes that's effective and helpful. Sometimes it's honest. You want your staff members to know that you champion their work. You want a newsroom where the flow goes up as well as down. You don't want to hurt your credibility by arguing too vigorously for a policy your staff knows you wouldn't support. But if you play good cop too much, you erode your own credibility and strength, as well as undercutting your bosses. The fact is, you are management. The more you take responsibility for the policies and decisions you carry out, the more reporters will respect your own authority. Respect the reporter's authorship. An assigning editor must be good with words, and must be able to rewrite a poorly written story when needed. But remember that the reporter is the author of each story and derives much of his job satisfaction from the creative process. Have a reason for every change you make, and be sure that you have improved the story. When you assign a story, give the reporter as much voice as possible in how to pursue the story and how to tell it. If a reporter feels strongly about something you want rewritten, listen to the objections and try to keep an open mind. Ask a trusted third party to read the story cold and give you a neutral opinion. (No skewing the results by how you present it: "Take a look at this story and see if you think it lacks focus.") You must uphold your paper's standards on such issues as clarity and fairness, but you must not dictate how each story should be told. Consider how the different approaches would affect the reader. If the reader would be misled, misinformed, offended or confused by the writer's approach, then firmly insist on a different approach. If the difference is just a matter of storytelling style, and you can't convince the writer your approach is better, give in, at least occasionally. Your name isn't at the top of the story, so it doesn't have to be written the way you would have written it. If the story needs rewriting, identify the problems and give the reporter the chance to do the work. If deadlines require that you rewrite the story yourself, call the reporter at home if necessary to collaborate, or at least to tell her after the fact, but before she reads it in the paper. The same principles apply with headlines, photos, graphics, page designs. Tell artists and photographers about the stories they are illustrating and about any elements you regard as essential to an assignment. But respect their artistic ability to deliver better visual journalism if you don't limit the assignment too much. If you think a copy editor can write a better headline, kick it back to him with some guidance, rather than rewriting it yourself. Value your staff's ideas. Chances are that you or one of your bosses told your staff members, especially the reporters, during their job interviews that your paper wants self-starters. Think about the conflicting message you send if any assignment from an editor is more important than the ideas your self-starters generate. Listen to their ideas. Discuss their story ideas and yours together and see if you can reach agreement about which to pursue first. You certainly have the authority to insist on an assignment and sometimes you will have to. But if you are assigning more than you are giving the go-ahead for self-starters to pursue their own stories, you have one of two problems: You're abusing your authority or you aren't sufficiently developing the self-starters you say you want. Self-starters can be annoying and stubborn, but they make you look good. Encourage your photographers and artists to generate ideas at all levels -- ways to illustrate stories, ideas for standalone art, visual journalism that will generate accompanying stories. Encourage copy editors to suggest local angles to stories they see on the wires and to suggest follow-ups to local stories they edit. Communicate face to face. Shooting e-mails back and forth is tempting, easy and sometimes necessary. But you should communicate important messages and many lesser ones face to face. If you have a complaint, look the staff member in the eye and state the problem. If you have praise, go to the staff member's desk, smile and deliver your praise. (However, if you keep missing connections, send the praise by e-mail rather than risk forgetting to praise.) Never send an e-mail to a staff member when you're angry. Written messages last longer than your anger. Physical presence, eye contact and a demonstration that you care are important parts of effective communication. The first two are lacking in an e-mail message. And the third is weak (your words may say that you care, but your actions say this one isn't worth getting out of your chair). After you communicate face-to-face, maybe you should follow up with an e-mail, to spell out a goal clearly or reinforce a message. But deliver the news, good or bad, eyeball to eyeball. Use your sense of humor. Too many editors are too serious. Sometimes you have to be, but you don't always have to be. You should be fun to work with. Laugh with staff members. Poke fun at yourself. Have fun. Be fun. Avoid sarcasm. Sarcasm and humor are not the same thing. Lots of journalists are sarcastic and your staff members will speak sarcastically to and about you. They will annoy you with their sarcasm. They will annoy you inappropriately with their sarcasm. Do not respond in kind. Your power as the supervisor makes your sarcasm inherently meaner and more demeaning. It's not always fair, but it's true.Apologize. You're going to make mistakes. You may use sarcasm inappropriately with staff members. You may lose your temper. You may make the right decision but communicate it ineffectively. You may make the wrong decision. Apologize. Don't grovel, but apologize. Apologize specifically and clearly. If you believe you made the right move but know you should have consulted the staff member or at least informed her, apologize specifically without dwelling on the area of difference. (If the area of difference needs to be dealt with to avoid future problems, keep this discussion distinct from the apology.) Staff members will remember an arrogant, inflexible attitude much longer than they will remember most mistakes their bosses make.
Respect your staff's personal life. Staff members are entitled to a life outside the newsroom. When work has to intrude, acknowledge the intrusion. Apologize for calling at home or for interfering with dinner or vacation or weekend plans. Thank the reporter who came in on a day off or skipped lunch to deal with your demands or questions. Commend the reporter or photographer who took the initiative to cover news that broke on personal time. She might have irritated a spouse or missed an important family event. Thanks are in order.
Respect your own personal life. You have a demanding job. You will meet those demands better for the long haul if you protect and respect a healthy personal life. If your job cuts into family time, as many news jobs do, make an effort to spend the remaining family time enjoyably. Be creative in finding meaningful ways to use time with your family. Tend to your own needs as well. Find time for exercise. Make time for a hobby or some pursuits you enjoy. Get an annual physical, and don't delay getting treatment for any physical discomfort or emotional distress. Have fun. Regularly. Especially when you're feeling a lot of stress on the job. You may experience a personal crisis, such as a troubled marriage, troubled children, health problems, a death in the family or an ailing parent. Confide in your supervisor and discuss whether you need some temporary relief from some of your job stress. That's a sign of wisdom, not weakness. And it will help your career better than appearing distracted without explanation or collapsing eventually under the combined stress. Confide in your immediate staff about the personal crisis, too. You may be sharing your stress in ways you don't recognize, and they're entitled to a general understanding (but not all the details).
Respond to bad times. Our industry puts newsrooms through difficult times: hiring freezes, staff reorganizations, staff reductions, dying afternoon papers, continuing stories that wear the staff out. Editors need to lead grumpy staffs even in these times. Acknowledge the difficulties. Your morale will suffer and so will your staff's. Commiserate with griping staff members. Then appeal to their professionalism. Maybe someone's talking openly about leaving. Tell him, "You're going to need some good clips then. How about hitting this story out of the park?" Maybe someone's griping about the latest unpopular corporate decision. Ask whether she'd like to get out of the newsroom on a fun assignment. In difficult times, swallow some of your criticism if it's not a matter of upholding standards. Dial up the praise and the thanks and the pleases. Foster teamwork. Many newsroom jobs require people to be intensively competitive. They don't just turn the competitive fires down when dealing with their newsroom colleagues. Competition within the newsroom is genuine: Staff members are competing for space, for spots on page one, for plum assignments, for future advancement opportunities. The editor needs to watch for instances when staff members are being territorial to the detriment of the paper or the staff. Is a busy reporter hoarding ideas that a colleague might have time to pursue? Can you pair two competitive reporters on a story or project, in hopes of building better camaraderie? Think people, not just production. Editors face major responsibilities to meet deadlines, fill space, manage story lengths and coordinate copy and page flow. Sometimes you may feel as though you run an assembly line. Resist the temptation to act that way. Too many conversations between editors and reporters cover only two questions: How long is it going to be and when are you going to turn it in? Too many conversations with copy editors, artists, designers and photographers follow similar production-oriented lines. Sure, you need to get that information, but don't forget to ask how good it's going to be or whether your staff members are enjoying their jobs or how you can help them perform better. Celebrate your staff's successes. One of the supervisor's most important functions is identifying and rewarding excellence and improvement. When a staff member excels, you should celebrate appropriately to the success. If it's major success, you might encourage your bosses to recognize it with a bonus or lunch on the company or an extra day off or praise from on high. Don't forget the small successes that might just merit a "way to go." Especially if the budget is too tight for tangible rewards, find creative and appropriate ways to celebrate and recognize achievements. It's especially important to celebrate improvement by a staff member who's struggling. It's easy for a supervisor to think, "It's about time" when a staff member finally delivers, or to say you're not going to praise someone just for doing his job. But for the struggling employee, getting it right is a breakthrough that you need to recognize and celebrate appropriately. Don't overdo it. That can be read as sarcasm, like the basketball fans who cheer a bad shooter who finally makes a free throw. Identify the goal the staff member has achieved. Discuss how to do it again, or how to achieve the next goal. And be generous and sincere with your praise. Steve Buttry NTNG