No matter how much money or resources newspapers throw at the problem of their Web products and Web problems, it won’t make a major difference unless newsroom cultures are changed first.
All journalists — not just Webbies and online journalists — need to understand the importance of the Web and contribute to the Web product. Steve Outling believes serious newsroom cultural change is needed in 2008:
The feeling in newsrooms, especially among the people on the new-media side, seems to be that there are an awful lot of people within organizations that aren’t on board with a vision of changing for the future. Even when top management has developed a new corporate vision for a digital, multi-media and less print-centered future, and communicated it to “the troops,” implementation is being slowed by many people in the organization — including mid-level managers — who still don’t buy into the idea that a total transformation of the news organization is necessary.
I’m not surprised. Even at the college level, where you might expect all students to be on board with the notion of a digital-centric, publish-it-right-now, multi-media approach to news, I still run into budding journalists who cling to the hope of finding a traditional newspaper reporting job. Especially in the newspaper profession, the notion — outdated, in my view — that print still reigns supreme remains strong.
Yeah, we could use a magic wand to get rid of that tired old thinking.
Outling asked a bunch of people what they would do if they could wave a magic wand at their organizations problems. What would I wave my wand at? I’d make Stripes online first, print second and make everyone think about and create content for the Web.
We have a huge — absolutely huge — market we could tap into online that we can’t hit in print (particularly in the U.S., where we don’t print). The only way to hit that market is to go hard — or go home — on the Web.
Finally, I’d wave a big wand at the schism between the different staffs, whether they be print, online, business, marketing, etc. A news organization needs synergy to succeed in the 21st century.
If you could wave a magic wand at your organization what would you change?