Newsrooms should stop falling for all that glitters

In times of digital transition, media enterprises are constantly looking for people with specific technical or managerial skills. But these enterprises cannot neglect the core expertise that all newsrooms require: journalism.

Have you recently browsed through articles on future jobs in newsrooms? If so, you’ve probably learned that newsrooms are increasingly seeking growth editors, platform wranglers, newsroom conductors, or automation editors. These jobs are necessary to keep pace with the ongoing digital transition process. However, in this race, we sometimes seem to forget that all newsrooms — big or small, global or local — need real journalists in order to be successful.

So here is a list of five essential fields of expertise newsrooms will need in the future:

1. The Bling Bling Manager — a multimedia decision maker

Experts have become accustomed to maximising a story’s potential by expanding presentation across multiple channels and platforms. That is why newsrooms are hiring different teams to deal with data, visualisation, mobile, podcasts, virtual reality, and even drones. They spend a lot of energy asking which technologies to invest in next, but it is perhaps much more important to decide where not to invest.

It might turn out that one of the most important jobs involves making decisions on what media researcher Lucy Kueng calls ‘shiny new things’. These ever new technologies are dangerous temptations, as Kueng points out in the Going Digital: A Roadmap for Organisational Transformation report. If they don’t fit the organisation’s focus and targets, they are disrupting strategies, diverting attention, and adding to resource overstretch.

Thus if the news industry needs another fancy job profile, I suggest the ‘Bling Bling Manager’: a person that would systematically screen technology and trends against core strategic goals and business models. For instance, the Bling Bling manager would be responsible for deciding if a newsroom should develop augmented reality projects or if it’s more important to invest in on-demand audio and voice-driven assistants. They would make sure that a newsroom doesn’t fall for all that glitters.

2. The audience engager — a journalist able to build a relationship

Ryan Kellett, audience engagement manager at the Washington Post, is himself a success story in managing audience engagement. In 2012, Kellett started with a team of five and then quickly expanded to 30: his team members are part of the newsroom, work for the social media channels, and interact with the Post’s audience. On top of this, there is a special ‘Embedded Social’-Team, which works directly with journalists in the different departments. If a newsroom wants to regain trust, a team who knows how to reach audiences, build up a relationship, work with metrics, and motivate journalists to engage with the audience will be vital.

3. The newsroom developer — a journalist at heart

Journalism and tech are merging, with convergence being one of the big transformations in the media and other industries. Thus, every newsroom needs journalists who understand the languages of algorithms and data. As their counterparts, you’ll need developers who love journalism. Newsrooms will have to work even harder to create an attractive environment for coders, data crunchers, and bot developers who love to think about your user in a user-centered way, who have a strong impetus to design processes that make journalistic teamwork reliable and efficient, and who have the drive to be visionaries in how to develop tech for good journalism.

4. More than an editor in chief — an editorial leader of organisational transformation

Legacy media have to put as much emphasis on transforming the organisation as they do on transforming their product. The most important job is that of a strong, dedicated leader who does not back down easily. Newsroom leadership will need new strategic qualities: The era of the digital visionary has passed. What is needed now is spiritedness in implementation and a relentless focus on achieving core strategic goals. Not only will they be responsible for good journalism and innovative products, not only will they have to think hard about how to recruit talent, but they also have to focus on transforming the newsroom’s processes, routines, and culture: an organisational task far more challenging than transforming legacy media content to digital products.

5. The journalist — an expert and public intellectual

In times of digital transition we are aware of a simple fact: Without journalism, nobody would understand what’s going on outside his or her bubble. A journalism organisation does not only have to report what is happening. We all need professionals that are able to analyse reality and explain the context. With the fragmentation of knowledge and sources, future journalists will need even more specific knowledge in their fields in order to explain the complexity of the world; to know how to evaluate sources, guide the audience, and build credibility. Building trust is essential. And to gain trust, you need expertise.

Surprisingly, when we discuss the future of newsroom jobs or when we scan predictions, only seldom the most important issue raised is that a newsroom needs to attract and keep the best experts and intellectuals. Investigative reporters, op-ed writers, correspondents, columnists, and editors with many years of expertise who are critical thinkers and transparent about their professional standards, will remain the heart of the newsroom.

Selected further reading:

• Lucy Küng, Going digital — A roadmap for Organisational Transformation
• Nic Newman, Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2018
• Jill Geisler, Critical Thinking: What Do You Mean by That?