Inviting journalists to take time to learn
Journalists are busier than ever. Jobs are consolidating, and job descriptions are expanding. The challenges and negative feedback can overtake the rewards and kudos. The work, and the layoffs, can feel never-ending.
You know who else is keeping busy? The people and organizations working to solve journalism’s problems. (I’m one of them.) We’re creating knowledge around improving journalism and helping news organizations stay in business. And we have strategies to share and help to offer.
But a key challenge for us is getting journalists’ attention. If we think what we offer can make a real difference in the quality and sustainability of a journalist’s work, how do we pitch it in a way that makes it seem worth their time?
When journalists’ plates are overloaded, it’s not always possible to just get a bigger plate (as I once heard a newsroom manager recommend). Some items have to drop off the to-do list, and it makes sense when time set aside for learning gives way to more urgent tasks. When everyone’s just trying to survive to the end of the daily sprint, it can feel like a real chore to participate in anything that doesn’t get today’s product to the finish line.
So how can we offer training and support in a way that is accessible, worthwhile, and useful? And how can we make the best use of journalists’ time once we have it?
At a recent gathering of some grantees and partners of Democracy Fund, a group of us who share this challenge took time to talk it through. (See a list of collaborators at the end of this post.) Among us, we offer a whole range of services and materials, including:
- live webinars
- online classes
- training videos
- in-person events of varying lengths
- audio/podcasts
- newsletters, blogs and social media posts
- Slack communities
Making training useful and accessible
Here are suggestions and best practices our group shared with each other. I’d love to hear your reactions, suggestions and additions, in a comment here or at joy@TrustingNews.org.
Solve journalists’ problems. Most people won’t tune in to hear about your research. They’ll tune in to find out what you’ve learned that can help them do better journalism today. That differentiation matters a great deal as you invite people to engage with you. Get specific, and emphasize utility. Use language journalists can take back to their bosses about what they’ll be better equipped to do after consuming what you’re offering.
A link like the one in the below tweet (which got only one retweet) feels like a lot of work to consume, and it’s not clear what that investment in time will produce.
In contrast, this tweet didn’t link to anything, but it got 25 retweets and 78 likes on its own.
The difference? The second tweet’s simple, specific message was easier to absorb at a glance. While it didn’t link to anything, we can only hope it prompted newsroom conversations. (That said — if this second tweet had included a link, it would have been even stronger. When people are drawn in, they’re often hungry for more.)
Share your resources in multiple formats. Just like news consumers, journalists have their own preferred ways of finding and consuming content. You’ll reach some best in person, some with a newsletter, and some on Facebook. Don’t worry too much about duplication. Remember that not everyone will see every invitation.
Offer less, more repetitively. Consider streamlining your messaging and pushing out only your best stuff, in as many ways as you can. If your offerings start to feel familiar, that actually can be a good thing (your pitch is getting noticed!). Each message has the potential to catch someone at the moment they’re ready to hear it and take action on it.
Create learning moments everywhere. A tweet might have more reach and impact than a white paper. (Again, just like in journalism!)
Offer help in person whenever possible. It’s easier to get people’s full attention when you’re in the same room. And when they commit to a day of training, they’re less likely to back out than when they sign up for a one-time webinar.
Consider charging money. It places a value on what you’re offering and might increase commitment and follow-through. You might actually get better participation if you charge for an event or class and then offer scholarships than you will if you offer it free — even if the end cost to each person is the same. (Humans are weird.)
Ideas for encouraging commitment
In addition to the best practices, we talked about things we wish would happen and ideas we’d like to explore.
How can we get more buy-in from newsroom leadership? For journalists to feel they can spare the time to focus on learning — whether that means reading a newsletter, attending an event or taking an online course — they need to know they have the support of their bosses. Time spent consuming training materials and thinking big-picture needs to be valued, in whatever chunks of time each newsroom can spare.
Can we find funding to free up newsroom time for training? What if there were small training grants available for newsrooms to fill in behind people who were taking time to learn? Or an extra internship spot to create bandwidth for a newsroom, giving staffers one day a month, or a couple hours a week, of unscheduled time?
Can we market training as an investment? Even a type of self-care? Journalists’ work is so stressful. They’re often inundated with negative audience feedback, and their futures (as individuals and organizations) can feel shaky. Focusing on solutions to problems can serve as an infusion of optimism and energy. How can we use the training and support we offer to encourage journalists to invest in themselves? And to encourage managers to invest in their staffs’ futures?
How can we encourage journalists to follow through? If someone has sat through an hourlong webinar, had a phone call about a new idea or attended an event — and has expressed a desire to follow through on what they learned — how can we help hold them accountable? Most of us welcome a nudge or a bit of structure when it comes to developing a new habit. We don’t mind being reminded of our goal or motivation to change. Maybe we should think of ourselves more like personal trainers and offer things like:
- a prompt for journalists to block out time on their calendars to map out next steps and send you an update
- a postcard they fill out that you’ll mail back to them (or an email they send you that you’ll reply to a month later) reminding themselves of their goals
- a week-by-week plan for the month after training ends, with instructions/ideas for how to build the work into their routines
Is there a benefit to a big picture approach? In addition to offering individual training and resources, can we do a better job of offering a more “continuing education”-style plan? Can we emphasize long-term skill building and show clear next steps on the path? Could that help make it clear why the time investment is worth it — to journalists and their managers?
Where can we create cohorts of learners? There’s such power in being connected to other people on a similar quest. The participants can learn from each other, not just from the trainers or “experts.” They can also hold each other accountable and celebrate each other’s successes. I’ve seen this work beautifully in the Trusting News Slack workspace and in Facebook groups for Poynter workshops.
How can we better amplify each other’s work? Each organization working to solve journalism’s problems has its own niche and its own audience. Where our missions and goals overlap, let’s share each other’s resources through our newsletters, events, social media, etc.
What‘s been your experience?
If you’re a working journalist, what types of training and learning are most convenient for you? Which are most effective? What makes them successful?
If you’re a newsroom manager, what value are you looking for from the training your staff participates in? What makes it worth the investment? Where do you look for ideas, and how do training opportunities find you?
If you work to solve the problems of journalism, what have you found successfully gets journalists’ attention and encourages follow-through? What materials do you produce that feel the most worth it?
I’d love to hear from you in a comment here or at joy@TrustingNews.org.
Thanks to these people for contributing to the conversation and this post:
- Stephanie Castellano, who produces the Need to Know newsletter from the American Press Institute
- Annie Chabel, COO of the Center for Investigative Reporting, which shares tools and resources with other newsrooms
- Tara Puckey, who manages strategic initiatives for the Radio Television Digital News Association, which offers training to journalists
- Andrew Rockway, who is a program director at the Jefferson Center and works on Your Voice Ohio
- Sarah Stonbely, who is the research director at the Center for Cooperative Media, where the team produces a newsletter that helps localize national stories and content and one about collaborative journalism
- Natalie Van Hoozer, who works for SembraMedia, which provides resources for Spanish-language digital media entrepreneurs in the U.S.
Joy Mayer is the founder and director of Trusting News. For help earning trust, subscribe to the Trust Tips newsletter, and request a free trust coaching session. Joy is also the community manager for Gather, a platform to support engaged journalism.
The Reynolds Journalism Institute of the University of Missouri is a former grantee of the Democracy Fund.
