Star Tribune editor aims to gain trust by reflecting community
Kyndell Harkness navigates her new position as assistant managing editor of diversity and community in an ever-diversifying state to increase reader’s trust in the local news.
By Anna Pearson
Kyndell Harkness picked up a call at the Virginia Daily Press photo desk from Richard Tsong-Taatarii, her former intern, now working at the Minneapolis Star Tribune in the fall of 2000, by chance. He told her about a job opening at the Tribune. Her reply: “Where’s Minneapolis?”
After growing up in New York City, Harkness lived short stints in Michigan, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Virginia for internships or other jobs before moving to Minnesota for the Star Tribune. Her diverse experiences in photojournalism led her to seek changes in the newsroom, striving for a newspaper in which everyone would see themselves represented .
In 2020, a new position was created at the Star Tribune, and Harkness was hired as the Assistant Managing Editor of Diversity and Community. She continues to work to reach more people through the press that have not felt represented in the news before.
Q: What are some of your responsibilities as an editor of diversity and community?
A: What the job entails is basically building structures of belonging that allow the newspaper to be good to itself, making sure that people feel seen and heard, no matter what kind of job they do and what they look like at the newspaper. Hopefully that translates into our outward facing look at things, making sure that the community that we’re covering feels seen and heard by us, and we reflect that community in a holistic and accurate way.
Q: What is a typical work day like for you?
A: There is no such thing as a typical work day. I go to a lot of meetings to talk to people, do some one-on-ones with folks who are trying to figure out their career or I might do a recruiting job. I’m finding people from all over the country who may want to work at the Star Tribune, and talking to them about their careers, internally and externally recruiting. I have meetings with people who are trying to revamp our hiring system, or meetings with people who are trying to change the way we cover public safety, or just things that we’re trying to work on and do to be a better news organization.
Sometimes I’m applying for grants or different stuff to help us be better, or talking to different reporters. Sometimes I’m speaking at schools. Our newspaper is learning a lot by doing all these things and trying to be better, trying to make some roadmaps.
The more news organizations that are doing work to try to be better for themselves and for their community, the better. In terms of getting information out to people in a way that makes them feel whole — if I can help other news organizations do that, I think that is a worthwhile effort.
Q: What are the pros and cons about being an editor?
A: The good thing about being an editor is the ability to get somebody to grow in a way that even surprises you. They produce work that inspires other people, and we’ve done a good job. I’ve felt like I’ve helped this person along in their growth.
The flip side is also the people, right? Having to deal with difficult conversations, folks not doing the work you need them to, or they said something they shouldn’t have. Giving somebody bad news is never fun, but it’s never bad — that also is a part of the teaching and their learning process.
Good friends don’t always say, ‘Yeah, you’re awesome!’ They say, ‘Dude, you messed up. That was not a good choice.’ You have to be that person who is not only looking at the individual, but looking at the whole news organization. Being honest and fair, just like in reporting, is important in development of people.
“People are fascinating. You can work with someone for a long time, and there’s things that get revealed over time, and that part I really like.” –Kyndell Harkness, editor
Q: What are some memorable stories you’ve covered in your job?
A: Big things happening like Prince passing away, Philando Castile and George Floyd, and having to navigate what that’s like. Not only making sure that people get home safe, depending who needs to go and who needs to come back, logistically keeping people safe, but also getting the pictures back in a timely manner to tell people what’s going on. The [death of] George Floyd was interesting in the middle of a pandemic, everybody’s at home trying to collectively do our jobs in separate places, it was hard. But we did it, so it was good in that respect.
Q: What do you like about being an editor?
A: I’m a people person, so I really enjoy learning about folks in a really holistic and deep way. So, asking people what they want, how they want to grow, what interests them — there’s always a surprise. People are fascinating. You can work with someone for a long time, and there’s things that get revealed over time, and that part I really like. I love that part of the surprise when you ask your set of questions, and you have no idea what people are going to come back to you. I like it because it keeps you on your toes.
“If you’re ever going to be a boss, always be a doer. Don’t be that person who’s not a doer.” –Kyndell Harness, editor
Q: What challenges do you face in your position?
A: How are you going to be effective? You can only do so much. Here are all of the things that I give you to succeed, but success is not in your control. As an editor, you can set this reporter up for success, or set this photographer up for success, make sure they have all the information they need and then you stand back and let that person do it.
What happens to that initiative is then outside of your body, in control of another person. So you have to wait and see what happens and adjust. You sort of plan around what the possibilities are — What if you don’t get what you need? What’s your plan B? It’s in somebody else’s hands, and that can be scary.
Q: What advice would you give to students aspiring to become an editor?
A: If you’re ever going to be a boss, always be a doer. Don’t be that person who’s not a doer. I always remember that because I want to know what my people are going through and have an understanding of that. You have to be close to the work so that you can understand the hurdles. If you understand the process, be it physical or mental, that the people you’re working with are going through, then it makes you a better decision-maker.
I think it’s important for you to go out into the community and be present in places that your reporters are covering. There are a lot of people that as soon as they get to editor status, the longer you stay in it the further away you are from that understanding.
Q: How is incorporating diversity and community into journalism changing the game for you and for the Star Tribune?
A: It’s about understanding our audience, and that our audience is not a monolith. When we include other voices, differing voices, more people come to us. How do we become a trusted news source in multiple communities? I don’t think we’re there yet, especially when you think about COVID and everybody needing to know what was happening with it. If we are not trusted in that moment, then there are people who might get misinformation about what’s going on. For the health of our community and our state, it’s important that we gain the trust of many people, so we can give that information to them when they need it.
The reason why I’ve been chosen for this job is that I’ve been thinking about doing this work a lot, I could always see our newsroom as a whole and I had certain ideas about things. Now I get to have a bigger platform to say those ideas, and people are listening. They can choose what pieces of what I’m saying make sense for themselves for the future.
Harkness knows that as the world changes around newsrooms, the news needs to change with it. She says that as more news organizations try to reflect the community, they’re doing important work to better themselves.
“I think that is a worthwhile effort, even though it means having to talk to crazy amounts of people,” she said.
