One of the primordial steps, Halls said, was to change the newsroom’s mindsets, from top to bottom. To the question “who knows,” all staffers should be able to answer, not only senior executives. He cited the example of Will Lewis and the Daily Telegraph: the editor-in-chief and senior news executives must be at the center of the process, and serve as the “Chief Teachers” for the rest of the staffers. Lewis would regularly come to the Q&A sessions for his staff training and participate personally, to encourage his team.

Of course, special training sessions are also needed. Halls recommended newsrooms to hire a “Performance Improvement” specialist – a training consultant. For newsrooms stranded by resources, or those with a large number of staffers, a single training specialist can teach other staffers how to carry on the training.

As opposed to managerial preconceptions, there is only a small portion of staffers who really are against newsroom change. Most of the staffers are reticent either because they lack the skills to go through new requirements (need training), or because they haven’t been informed about why change is needed (lack of communication).

She outlined the steps for newsroom integration, or newsroom change, as follows:

- generate awareness of change
- make staffers understand reasons for change
- create a positive perception of change, as an opportunity
- implement change
- institutionalize change
- internalize change

She rightly notes that many newsrooms seem to begin their newsroom integration process at the “implementation” stage. Instead of preparing their staff psychologically and discussing with them the overall strategy, editors may tend to map out a plan and impose it on the unknowing reporters. Not only does this make it much harder for the changes to be accepted, it increases the chance that the changes will never get institutionalized.

It seems the main obstacles to newsroom integration are a lack of internal communication and follow-through, rather than a fundamental unwillingness of staff. With proper training, psychological preparation of the staff, and especially two-way communication, a newsroom can reform itself.

Source: Editors Weblog