Media Career Development specialist reflects on how to better utilize newsroom skills against the background of the changing media landscape.
With the increasing downturn in the fortunes of media houses, especially legacy ones, the easiest way to meet operating costs is to reduce staff strength.
Since the newspapers for example now produce fewer pages and cannot accommodate as much content as they used to, they may appear not to need as many editorial staff as before.
Even for the staff retained, there may not be enough work for them to do based on their traditional job roles.
The feedback from some staff of media houses I spoke with recently is that they are getting frustrated with the non-use of their reports as much as before. The photographers say only a few of their photographs get published, while broadcast journalists are unhappy that they are unable to get enough of their reports on air.
They say they are losing out to new media startups that can meet up with demands for diverse and better use of reports and content.
Though some are still getting paid without doing much, they are not feeling fulfilled professionally and fear that they may sooner or later lose their jobs despite being able to offer more than their normal job requirements.
Instead of opting for the easiest way out of the situation or continuing to use the old operational models which are no longer sustainable, here are some options I have been thinking of.
I’m aware some media houses are already doing some of my suggestions, but we need to scale up our adopting some of the options to maximize their potential. For those who are still reluctant to adopt them, further delay may not be in the ultimate interest of our organizations.
*Can we start rethinking the job schedules of staff to maximize their skills and expand our revenue base and reach?
*Can we review our editorial sections and programmes based on inputs from our target audience and be sure some of them are still as relevant as they used to be?
*If we must retain some of the sections and programmes should the focus remain the same, change or expand based on the audit of our past production?
*How can we have more audience and patronage for what we cover by focusing on what matters most to our target audience and not what we think we know or what they need?
*What’s new in the sectors or issues we cover considering the need for value addition content from audiences that now have more platforms to choose from?
*For quality content and sections we can no longer accommodate due to reduced pagination or airtime, how about moving them to our online platforms in various ways?
*Can we retrain our staff to be more digitally literate and be able to create suitable content for our online platforms?
* Can we have more skilful digital staff in our online departments instead of deploying redundant staff or those we want to penalise there?
* Can we have a photo section on our website updated daily or a photo blog for our photographers linked to the website?
* Can our photographers also learn to produce videos for our social media platforms?
* Can our sections and programmes compete with online-only platforms and media startups in terms of content, ideas and speed?
* Can we have better convergence in editorial production instead of newsrooms that don’t know what’s on our websites?
* Can we have a digital policy that spells out the role of every staff to achieve maximum digital reach and revenue?
* Can we pay more attention to the analytics from our various platforms and use them for content development and engagements?
*Can we utilize our experienced staff to offer more than news and feature reports by offering insights the audience wants for particular issues at physical and online sessions?
* How about some special sections of staff facilitating paid and free workshops, webinars and other training programmes?
* What about partnering with relevant stakeholders to organise insight-rich conferences and lectures?
* What ebooks, books and other publications can our specialist reporters produce for sale or download for free?
* How about special newsletters to grow our special sections?
* Is there anything wrong with some of our staff becoming thought leaders and Influencers on some major topics online?
What will determine the survival of media organizations according to experts is no longer the medium they disseminate content, but the quality of variety of content they have for various audiences through various platforms.
More than ever before, we need to fully participate in capacity-enhancing media training and programmes along with our staff to update our knowledge of new technologies that are disrupting our traditional practices.
One last point. Because many of our organizations have not been as dynamic as they should be in their operations, many journalists are hanging on to their paid employment while offering content and services they could have provided for other platforms or their own.
I will be glad to get feedback on my suggestions.
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