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Sunday, September 18, 2005
Cabaero: Newsroom manager
By Nini B. Cabaero
Beyond 30
IT used to be an oxymoron, the newsroom manager. There is the traditional separation between news and management or the business component of a media organization. It used to be the ideal arrangement when the business side left journalists alone.
But, life isn’t simple anymore. The contemporary newsroom is giving rise to this new animal. What is a newsroom manager? In celebration of Cebu Press Freedom Week, it is worthwhile to look into this new role that journalists play.
A newsroom manager is usually a senior journalist with enough experience on the journalism part and who is thrust to the realm of helping ensure the publication’s positive bottom line. The newsroom manager works towards not the next day’s issue but the next year’s issue.
According to journalist Ishan Joshi, the multiple and sometimes discordant roles of a newsroom manager include being the:
* architect of editorial vision and mission
* custodian of editorial policies and ethics
* chief influence on newsroom culture
* newsroom’s chief executive and hiring-firing authority
* budget manager and revenue raiser of the editorial department
* first and last call on coping with pressures from advertisers, government, consumers, readers
* link to the community at large
It begins with the belief that newspapers are not all about a financial bottom line. That is important.
While new challenges have cropped up for newspaper organizations that require a closer look and a coordinated approach towards protecting the bottom line, the core purpose of newspapers — that is to inform the public — has remained. This purpose is the one thing that has not changed through the evolution of newspapers and the newspaper business.
This new role for journalists reflects the growth of the newspaper industry in the community. This transition means that what used to be simple is now a complicated mix of editorial and business in a new sphere of competing demands.
Editors, as leaders of the newsroom, face new challenges and new situations that demand not only their editorial judgment and skills but also their management acumen. It takes more than editing skills to lead a 21st century newsroom.
Editors are learning how to make newspaper content more relevant to old and new readers. They are learning the workings of the advertising and marketing offices and allowing new ideas to surface. With a common vision, the different departments work together to bring the organization forward.
The good thing about editors understanding the total newspaper processes is they can effectively safeguard the news from business intrusions that erode editorial integrity.
(ninicab@sunstar.com.ph)
(September 18, 2005 issue)
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