Working With the “Other” Newsroom

Ju-Don — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 03:27:59 +0000

My colleague, Tom Kennedy, and I spoke to a group of journalists at the
American Press Institute last week during its Visual Storytelling for Print and Web segment on “Being a Multimedia Storyteller.”

API asked us to walk participants through the “Being a Black Man” series as a model for print/Web collaboration.

I decided to leave the participants with the following thoughts about formal and informal collaboration:

Collaboration always begins with a conversation: The earlier you can talk to your colleagues in print/on the web, the better. No idea is too big/too small. Your goal is to get the conversation started.

There are two approaches to collaborating: informal brainstorming and formal planning session.

Informal brainstorming: Find someone willing to brainstorm with you. It could be your counterpart in print/online. It could be a person with the skills to help you think through a specific part of a presentation or coverage. It could be someone with no stake in the game.

Informal brainstorming: The sky’s the limit. Informal conversations are more about helping you consider the possibilities than determing the scope of the project. Think big; during formal planning, you’ll refine your ideas.

Informal brainstorming: Abandon everything you think you know. Be flexible. Be willing to try something you didn’t think of. Trust your colleagues’ expertise.

Informal brainstorming: The last step is to set up a formal planning session.

Formal planning session: Bring together key players from print/online. This may include a designer, reporter, print assignment editor, Web editor, producer, videographer, coder, etc. In a smaller shop, it might just be a producer and reporter. (That’s OK. Bigger teams don’t always mean better results.)

Formal planning session: Have an agenda and be able to answer the following: What are you trying to accomplish? What is the timeframe for the project? What’s the priority for both teams/or the project?
What’s the potential impact on other projects/priorities? Do you have the right skillsets in-house to get it done? Are there any obstacles to your project’s success?

Formal planning session: Identify opportunities for innovation. Is there room for experimentation? Can you present content in a different way? Can you take a different approach to your reporting? Are their parts of the story better told through multimedia/parts better told through text? Identify the most appropriate method for each component.

Formal planning session: Don’t end the meeting without making assignments or identifying next steps. Keep the momentum going by immediately putting everyone to work. If you don’t identify next steps, your next meeting will inevitably be another brainstorm session. Identify the person who will hold everyone else accountable!!!

Happy planning!

Ju-Don Marshall Roberts » tips

Working With the “Other” Newsroom